Calling Fact or Fiction on the Top Quotes Coming out of Mayweather-Pacquiao

Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr.'s unanimous-decision victory over Manny Pacquiao Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas placed a decisive stamp on the seven-year-long rivalry between boxing's pound-for-pound icons.

For Mayweather it was just another easy night of work at the office.

He commanded Pacquiao in the way he's done all the other men who have stepped into the ring with him throughout his illustrious 19-year career that now includes 48 victories against no defeats.

Mayweather kept control of the fight with his movement and ring generalship. The pound-for-pound king dominated the distance and pace of the fight with his left jab and straight right hand, completely nullifying Pacquiao's offense except for a few isolated bursts that got the crowd going but ultimately didn't affect the outcome.

After years of hype and talk—smack and otherwise—from both camps and their fans, we finally have our answer.

But you shouldn't expect that talk to stop now.

No way.

Let's play fact or fiction with some of the top quotes to come out of Saturday night's big showdown.

"In my era I'm TBE."

Al Bello/Getty Images

Fact.

Mayweather's propensity for raising eyebrows was on full display when he made a string of grandiose comments about his all-time status in the sport to ESPN's No. 1 Floyd fan/cheerleader Stephen A. Smith during the pre-fight buildup.

"No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali was better than me," Mayweather said.

Most fans don't consider that topic one in need of as much brain washing as common sense, but Floyd's many fans and supporters would still vainly attempt to convince most anyone that their guy belongs not just in the conversation with Robinson and Ali but a level above.

When asked at the post-fight press conference about his potential for breaking heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano's record of 49-0 before retiring, Mayweather was a bit more deferential.

"Rocky Marciano, Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson. It's no different from Ali. He called himself the greatest, and this is my era and in my era I'm TBE," he said.

Calling Mayweather the greatest fighter of all time is absolutely 100 percent fiction.

Robinson, Ali, Leonard and those guys just fought in better eras and fought consistently more dangerous challengers. But to label him TBE in this era is a statement that is settled and no longer up for debate.

Mayweather beat the one man whom many said he'd never face, and he did it decisively by imposing his style and his will. He's easily this generation's best fighter.

"The ruling made tonight affected the outcome of the fight."

John Locher/Associated Press

Fiction.

Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum drummed up the biggest post-fight controversy.

The veteran matchmaker claimed the Filipino star had requested and was denied an injection on fight night by the Nevada Athletic Commission to alleviate pain caused by a right-shoulder injury suffered in training camp.

"The ruling made tonight affected the outcome of the fight," Arum told the media after the fight.

Virtually every word out of Pacquiao, Freddie Roach and Arum's mouth at the post-fight event touched on the injured shoulder. According to BoxingScene.com, the injury was reportedly so bad that Pacquiao's team considered postponing the fight before deciding to go ahead, believing the fighter would be able to receive the shot after clearance from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

But to sit there on fight night, after a clear and decisive loss that had more to do with Pac-Man's inability to cut off the ring against a superior tactician, and make excuses is just the wrong way to go.

And to do it after fans just forked over $100 to watch on pay-per-view is insulting.

"I've made a decision to relinquish all those belts."

Harry How/Getty Images

Fact.

Mayweather successfully defended his WBC and WBA Welterweight Championships while adding Pacquiao's WBO strap to his growing collection of expensive boxing-related bling to unify three-fourths of the 147-pound crown on Saturday.

And then he dropped a bomb at the post-fight press conference when repeatedly pressed on his future plans in the sport.

"I've made a decision to relinquish all those belts," Mayweather said Saturday night. "Other fighters need a chance. Give them chances. It's time for other fighters to have chances at belts."

WBO President Paco Valcarcel tweeted after the fight that Mayweather had previously agreed to vacate his organization's title in the event of victory, but the decision to jettison the WBC and WBA's titles comes as something of a surprise.

Or not.

Mayweather is such a huge, transcendent star that sanctioning organization belts mean less than nothing to him. They need him a lot more than he needs them, so why bother with the sanctioning fees and paperwork?

That clearly plays a role here.

Know what else doesn't hurt?

Amir Khan and Keith Thurman, both Al Haymon fighters, are now in position to secure the full versions of those belts.

Khan would be in line to challenge for the vacant green belt as holder of the WBC's silver championship, while Thurman is already the regular WBA champion, a belt secondary in the pecking order to Mayweather's legitimate title.

It's all about spreading the wealth, after all, and it doesn't hurt when you get to spread that wealth in house.

"I once loved the sport of boxing. Throughout the years I lost the love for the sport."

Al Bello/Getty Images

Fact.

Mayweather captured the most significant win of his storied career Saturday night, but he did so against the backdrop of swirling controversy relating to his long history of domestic violence and his camp's alleged handling of reporters who were critical of him on the subject, as detailed by ESPN.com.

Behind all the glitz, glamour and nine-figure paychecks of this megafight came the increased glare of media scrutiny that brought several stories, written about in great detail by writers such as Daniel Roberts of Deadspin and Martin Rogers of USA Today, out of the shadows and into mainstream discourse.

Maybe all the scrutiny has gotten to Mayweather and begun to wear on him.

"I once loved the sport of boxing. Throughout the years I lost the love for the sport," he told the media at the presser after the fight.

It's possible that a combination of increased scrutiny, 38 years of life and 20-plus years of fighting on his frame and a lack of remaining challenges has finally pushed the envelope to the point where he no longer wants this anymore.

Given that he will likely end up making somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million for his work Saturday night, it's not like he needs to keep fighting for the paycheck, right?

"I thought he ran very well."

John Locher/Associated Press

Fiction.

Roach has forgotten more about the sport of boxing than most of us can ever hope to learn in one hundred lifetimes, but he's way off the mark with this criticism of Mayweather's tactics Saturday night.

"I thought he ran very well. When he wasn't throwing punches, he was just running and moving backwards. I feel Manny should have won a lot of those rounds because he was the aggressor," Roach said at the post-fight press conference.

Sure, Floyd backtracked a lot, tied up on the inside, deliberately slowed the pace and didn't allow Pacquiao to turn the contest into the type of firefight that favored the Filipino's strengths.

But did anyone realistically think that Mayweather, undefeated in 47 fights, would suddenly abandon everything that got him to this level and jump out of his comfort zone?

Especially when that would have played into the strengths of the one man most observers felt had the best chance of hanging a loss on his pristine record?

That's how Mayweather fights.

It's how he's always fought.

Don't like it?

Change it.

Manny was coming forward, yes, but he was highly ineffective and didn't throw enough.

It was Pacquiao's job to force Mayweather to change his style, and he couldn't possibly expect to do that by throwing an average of just 35 punches per round—about half of where he needed to be—per CompuBox tracking.

It wasn't scintillating stuff, but it was vintage Mayweather, and nothing about it was surprising.

You can follow Kevin McRae on Twitter @McRaeBoxing.