Biggest Lessons Learned from Mayweather and Pacquiao's Common Opponents

It's finally fight week!

But before Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao walk into the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas for boxing's richest, most anticipated and likely most watched fight in history, let's take a look at how the fighters got here.

We'll break down all five of the common opponents for each man, the lessons we learned in those fights and decide which man was most impressive.

Did we learn anything from those fights that could be instructive when May-Pac finally happens this coming Saturday?

Read on to find out.

Juan Manuel Marquez

Rick Bowmer/Associated Press

Mayweather

Mayweather announced his return to the sport of boxing after 21 months of self-imposed exile on the same day that Pacquiao met Ricky Hatton in 2009's most significant fight, which, incidentally, took place exactly six years to the day before this upcoming superfight.

Money's decision to announce when he did, and to fight Juan Manuel Marquez, who had previously fought Pacquiao to a draw and close loss, both screamed of attempts to upstage his then-nascent rival.

Mayweather thrashed Marquez in one of the more lopsided significant fights in history. He dropped the Mexican legend in the second round and connected on a borderline ridiculous 59 percent of his total punches en route to a unanimous-decision win that wasn't remotely close.

Pacquiao

Pacquiao and Marquez have engaged in one of boxing's most competitive and bitter rivalries in recent times, dating back more than 10 years to their first meeting in 2004.

Pacman, who had just burst on the scene with a one-sided demolition of Marco Antonio Barrera, appeared on the verge of giving similar treatment to Marquez. He dropped him three times in the first three minutes before having to hold on for a disputed draw.

"Disputed" remains the word to describe this rivalry, with Pacquiao capturing narrow decisions in their next two fights before Marquez sent shock waves through the sport with a one-punch knockout win in 2012.

Advantage: Mayweather

A lot of things about Mayweather's win over Marquez don't sit right, but he did beat him in a way never seen before or since.

Dinamita was coming up two full weight classes for the fight, and Mayweather had a tremendous size advantage, compounded by his decision to come in above the contracted weight and just pay a fine.

Pacquiao's troubles with Marquez, while understandable and nothing to be ashamed about, have been well documented. You'll find a smattering of people who don't feel he's ever legitimately beaten his biggest rival, even if he's officially 2-1-1 in their series.

Oscar De La Hoya

Eric Jamison/Associated Press

Mayweather

It was billed "The World Awaits," and Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya turned out to be the fight by which all others are measured, at least financially. 

The 2007 fight itself was very compelling in the first half. De La Hoya's ability to jab effectively and attack forced Mayweather into a few tight corners. At the midway point it seemed the fight was even and on the table heading down the stretch.

De La Hoya inexplicably abandoned his jab, which was very effective, over the second half of the fight, and it was Mayweather who took over with the quicker, harder shots to earn a narrow split decision, the junior middleweight title and the mantle as boxing's next transcending star.

Pacquiao

Pacquiao fought De La Hoya a year-and-a-half after Mayweather did—and after Floyd's sudden retirement put the brakes on a potentially lucrative rematch between the two pound-for-pound stars.

Even with Oscar past his best, and moving back down to 147 pounds for the first time in seven years, most boxing observers still felt that the Golden Boy's huge perceived size advantage would be too much for his small-but-speedy foe.

Pacquiao had only fought once at 135 pounds, and mostly campaigned at 130 and below, but that didn't stop him from blitzing De La Hoya from the opening bell before forcing him to retire on his stool after eight ugly rounds. 

Advantage: Pacquiao

This one might rub some people the wrong way, given the De La Hoya who fought Mayweather was at his weight and not as far past his best, but Pacquiao gets the nod here.

Pacquiao literally beat De La Hoya, who had been highly competitive against Mayweather, into retirement. It was less a fight and more a public execution of the fighter who had spent years as the sport's standard-bearer. 

Ricky Hatton

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Mayweather

Both Mayweather and Hatton entered their highly anticipated 2007 welterweight championship showdown undefeated, but there were few, if any, similarities between the fighters and their in-ring styles.

Mayweather, the refined boxer who likes to control the fight with distance, defense and speed, entered the hostile confines of an MGM Grand packed to the brim by well-traveled fans from England, there to support the British brawler. 

And he sent them all home unhappy by being quicker, slicker and just plain better. Hatton's rough tactics were rendered completely useless against Mayweather, who constantly beat him to the punch, knocked him down in Round 10 and finished him in spectacular fashion.

Pacquiao

Pacquiao fought Hatton after Mayweather (2009), but he did so at the Hitman's best fighting weight of 140 pounds. 

The fight was pretty much over just seconds after the opening bell rang. 

Hatton was down twice in the first round, before many fans watching at home had even finished their pre-fight bathroom breaks, and got stopped by a smashing left hand in the second. The punch left him a concussed heap on the mat and and allowed Pacquiao to write his name into boxing's history books with a record-tying title in a sixth weight class.

Advantage: Pacquiao

Mayweather might have beaten him first, but Pacquiao's second-round knockout was brutal, scary and one of the most impressive jaw implosions of all time.

Miguel Cotto

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

Mayweather

A lot of people made the point that Mayweather got Miguel Cotto at the right time in 2012. That's boxing code for a fighter on the downward swing of the pendulum. The Puerto Rican legend had previously been brutalized by Antonio Margarito—of "Margacheato" fame after being found with loaded hand wraps in his next fight—and Pacquiao in exceptionally violent losses.

Mayweather had a few rough patches against Cotto, but he was able to overcome them and outbox his foe for a convincing unanimous decision in a fight that was competitive but decisive.

Pacquiao

Pacquiao turned in arguably his best performance in brutalizing Cotto in 2009 to win a world championship in a record seventh weight division.

Cotto was an in-his-prime welterweight with the size, power and determination expected to give Pacquiao, still a smallish fighter rapidly rising up in weight, all he could handle and more. But the Filipino's blazing speed, vicious combination punching and sturdy chin produced a pair of early knockdowns and left Cotto's face a swollen, bloody mask when the fight was called in Round 12.

Advantage: Pacquiao, by quite a bit

Mayweather's win was certainly impressive—and looks better given Cotto's performances since, which include winning the middleweight championship—but Pacquiao absolutely destroyed this man. There were no tough moments in a fight expected to be full of them, and Cotto looked like someone took a cheese grater to his face by the time his corner mercifully pulled him from the contest.

Shane Mosley

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

Mayweather

Shane Mosley earned his shot at Mayweather in 2010 with a sound beating of Margarito in the infamous loaded-gloves fight and by confronting him in the ring after his win over Marquez. That didn't fly too well with Floyd, and it earned him a chance at boxing's king.

Sugar Shane, a three-division champion, even had a moment in the fight, rocking Mayweather with a hard right hand in Round 2 before getting thoroughly dominated by hand speed and defense for the rest of the fight in a virtuoso performance.

Pacquiao

By the time Pacquiao got to Mosley a year later, the fight really didn't have much point.

Mosley, a former pound-for-pound king himself, was clearly past his best days and had just struggled to a split-draw—many felt it was a gift—against Sergio Mora. Pacquiao dropped him in Round 3 and won a unanimous decision by near-shutout scores, proving very, very little.

Advantage: Mayweather

People like to Monday-morning quarterback after the fact and take credit away from Mayweather for a decisive win over a still game opponent. Nobody was dismissing Mosley's chances coming into the fight—a good number of boxing heads actually picked him to win—after his blowout of Margarito, and doing so after the fact is disingenuous. 

On the other hand, we all knew Shane was damaged goods when he faced Pacquiao. 

Floyd takes this one big.

Overall Impressions

Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

With five common opponents, and all of them either elite or near-elite fighters, we can easily draw a few lessons from those contests about what we might see on May 2.

Overall we give Pacquiao a 3-2 edge, by measure of who beat who more impressively, but that won't carry any weight on fight night beyond possible nuances and strategies used in the ring.

Mayweather, obviously, has never been beaten, but he had a tough time—early—with De La Hoya, and Cotto was able to force him to engage him more and rough him up just a bit.

Both De La Hoya and Cotto were successful because they had moments where they got Mayweather's back against the proverbial wall—ropes—and threw punches without necessarily aiming for a particular target. You hit whatever you can hit, and that's something Pacman will need to utilize, especially if Floyd looks to catch a breather along the ropes.

Pacquiao struggled mightily with Marquez, but Floyd beat him like he was a club fighter and not a four-division champion heading to the Hall of Fame one day. 

Mayweather, on fresher legs than he has now, was able to make good use of his superior size and control the distance of the fight like only he can. Marquez's offense was severely limited—he landed fewer than 70 shots by CompuBox tracking—and mainly confined to sloppy lunges that came up well short.

Given that Mayweather will once again be the larger fighter, he could once again impose his will on the smaller fighter.

That's the blueprint, at least.

How it plays out?

We'll finally find out in just a few days.