Read the below link first to get my comments in proper context.
Lack of aggressive action especially from Pacman, of all people, quite disappointed me. I had not seem him fight this so lackluster- but for a few flurries (maybe 4th, 8th, 9th, 10th rounds, I have to re-watch the fight, of course) he somehow did it. Where was the energy, strength, and volume punching of his famous style. He threw less punches than May, the lowest of his career - unbelievable! He averaged more than 700 punches in his entire career. At Clottey, he threw 1,o00 punches. Last night, it was just a little over 400. Unbelievable! Obviously, something was very, very wrong, the why of which I was I able to find out about later in the day today. Part of it was due to May's evasiveness, give him credit, but Algieri ran away from Pac for much longer periods in another bout and Pac threw them at him at a much higher clip than last night. At first, I thought it might have been due to the fact that father time had been more cruel to his volume punching than whatever May actually was doing during the fight even though the latter was his usual defensive masterly great. I was puzzled at Pac's suspicious lack of use of his right hooks that felled so many ring greats. He was using it for a few jabs, a few uppercuts here and there, but no powerful right hooks at all last night. I was very puzzled, really very, just like I told fellow on-lookers at my cousin's big house - attended by a 20+ mixed crowd of May and Pac fans. Then I found the article below this Sunday afternoon. This explains why Pac was using only his stronger left to throw bombs. He was practically using
only one arm to snag a victory from the evasive May. Too bad, a fight we had waited for 5+ years to happen featured one who was physically "handicapped". Still, to have obtained a not-so-wide of a margin of a decision loss to the greatest defensive fighter of this era makes me wonder what could have happened had he been injury-free from the 3rd through 12th round during which time he did
not throw any killer upper right hooks. Still wondering.....if a doubtful rematch could take place in September - possibly May's last fight with Showtime when he retires - considering amongst a plethora of reasons that Pac has to undergo shoulder surgery which takes time to heal. Bob Arum compared his injury to Kobe Bryant's whose doctor also examined Pac. It now looks like he might retire himself.
During training when the injury actually happened (the injury resulted from Pac and a much bigger sparring partner both throwing simultaneous rights that collided and snapping Pac's right shoulder creating a tear in it), the President of Llyods of London (the company that specializes in liability insurance to non-collateral body parts) helicoptered into Las Vegas where the top brasses from HBO and Showtime had an impromptu meeting to discuss a possible postponement of the much-awaited $400 million fight. Now I understand all the brouhaha, but they kept it under a tight lid.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...loyd-Mayweather-fight-complains-Bob-Arum.html
I do not regret coughing up $99.50 to watch it but I regret not seeing a fully healthy Pac perform at his usually high physical level. What happens when an infinitely massive object collides with an infinite force was never truly answered, at least in my eye test. This was arguably his poorest performance since the loss to Marquez which he was winning from all judges' scorecards before the lucky killer punch flattened him.
A simple administrative medical form faux pas committed by Pacman and Arum's company allowed the Las Vegas Boxing Commission to deny him pain-numbing injections before the fight. The USDA - the Olympics-affiliated firm that oversaw the PEDS testing and the 13 blood collections from Pac during training was okay with Pac receiving the painkiller injections. The media, maybe it actually did do it, but none to my current knowledge, did not report on whether the same parallel blood testing was done on Mayweather as well. Also, it is quite questionable why USDA took a blood from Pac just before the weigh-in would take place. We might never know. This was done a little more than 24 hours before the fight would subsequently take place on May 2nd. When he lost to Morales, the blood was taken 72 hours before the the fight. Pac cites that the Morales loss had been caused by his weakened and not so immaculately strong fighting body as a result of the blood test from which he was declared super clean.
It is quite sad that Pac has had to capitulate so many questionable concessions over to Mayweather just to get this fight, not to insert the robbery he experienced under the hands of the judges from the egregogiusly Bradley loss. It is obviously given that he might have earned north of $100 mil from this mega fight but as an avid fan (and boxing journalist) I would have pined for a substantialy equal and fair fight where the both fighters are up to their usual top physical forms. Sadly, I did not see one last night. The fight was actually very boring even from a pure boxing analyst like me, especially now that I know full well that one of them was waging war with one arm only from the 3rd through 12th round. Immensely disappointing is an understatement. To a lesser degree, it's almost like the irksomely predictable frustration a loyal Husky fan experiences whenever referees tactically and
purposefully take Amida out of major games (in minor games they are saintly) leaving the Huskies handicapped or how Duke and Louisville could hand check our Huskies all day long with nary a foul slapped on them.
