Mayweather vs. Pacquiao Results: Punch Stats Prove Scorecards Were Right

On Saturday night in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed that he is one of the great defensive fighters of all time, as he completely neutralized the best offensive fighter of his generation, Manny Pacquiao. Judge Dave Moretti scored the fight 118-110 for Mayweather, while judges Glenn Feldman and Burt Clements scored it 116-112. 

Pacquiao certainly had his moments in the fight, but in the end, it wasn't remotely close. Mayweather's ability to control the range and tempo of the fight kept Pacquiao far out of position to attack for the vast majority of the bout. 

Mayweather was his usual sharpshooter self during the fight, making Pacquiao pay for trying to close range with his sneaky right hand. But the big surprise of the fight had to be that Mayweather not only landed at a higher percentage than Pacquiao but also threw more total punches. 

As this tweet from SporTV's Ana Hissa demonstrates, the punch stats clearly justified Mayweather's one-sided decision:

Money threw six more punches than Pacquiao and landed 67 more. 

Perhaps the most notable CompuBox statistic was Pacquiao's jab output. He landed just 18 of 193 jabs, for a paltry 9 percent accuracy. His inability to jab his way into range on Mayweather ultimately made it impossible for him to compete with the pound-for-pound king. 

After the fight, Pacquiao's camp leaked out that their fighter had been battling with an injury to his right shoulder. To their credit, neither Pacquiao nor his trainer Freddie Roach pointed to the injury as a significant factor in the fight during the press conference, which was broadcast live on ESPN. 

But it is possible to see how an injury like that might have made it tougher for Pacquiao to throw as many punches as he needed to. Still, no matter what condition he had been in for this fight, I don't believe he would have had the footwork, timing or ring generalship to make the bout much closer than it was. 

And as Mayweather asserted in the press conference, he was fighting with injuries as well. Pacquiao is 36, and Mayweather is 38. So realistically, neither man would ever be likely to make it through a training camp and enter the ring at 100 percent. 

Al Bello/Getty Images

It does beg the unanswerable question of what this fight might have been like if it had happened three to five years ago, when both men were still in their physical primes. We'll never know. 

But what we do know for sure is this: On May 2, 2015, Pacquiao had no answers for Mayweather's skill. The numbers back that statement up.