Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 2015: Why Fans Shouldn't Feel Cheated by One-Sided Fight

Floyd Mayweather Jr. improved his perfect record to 48-0 with a unanimous-decision victory. It wasn't a particularly surprising outcome since Money has built a great career by winning in that manner, yet there was a great deal of backlash surrounding it.

In addition to everyday fans, even boxing legends were seemingly disgusted by the clinic that the 38-year-old champion exhibited.

Former World Heavyweight champ Mike Tyson didn't feel as though the bout lived up to the lofty standards that he and many others set for it:

Oscar De La Hoya, who previously fought both Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, agreed. He was even more specific than Iron Mike in his criticism as he essentially scolded the boxers for not engaging in a brawl:

"

Sorry boxing fans.

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) May 3, 2015"

For anyone who has seen Mayweather or Pacquiao fight in recent years, though, it was quite obvious that the contest wouldn't play out that way.

Money hasn't been an aggressive, knockout-searching fighter since the early part of his career. With the exception of him stopping an unsuspecting Victor Ortiz four years ago, Floyd hasn't scored a knockout since putting down Ricky Hatton in 2007.

Pac-Man is better known for throwing hands at will, but even he has trended away from that style to some degree. The 36-year-old Filipino hasn't knocked anyone out since Miguel Cotto in 2009, and it is clear that his punching power has waned over the past six years.

Add in the fact that Mayweather is one of the most elusive and best defensive fighters of all time, and there was no reason to believe that the trend would be broken.

Another reason for the negative reaction to the fight is the fact that it has since come out that Pacquiao was injured. According to ESPN.com's Dan Rafael, he needs surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff:

There is a large contingent of fans who feel cheated since Pac-Man went into the bout at less than 100 percent. Per ESPN.com's Darren Rovell, that has led to a number of class-action lawsuits being field against Pac-Man and Top Rank in order to recoup losses from pay-per-view buys, ticket purchases and gambling losses.

Although Pac-Man and his camp were aware of the ailment ahead of time, they did not specify in pre-fight paperwork that there was an issue, as seen in this photo courtesy of Rovell:

Rather than accepting the defeat graciously and chalking it up to Mayweather being the better fighter that night, Pacquiao has added fuel to the fire by blaming the loss, in large part, on his injury, according to Rafael:

"It's part of the game," Pacquiao said. "I don't want to make alibis or complain or anything (but) it's hard to fight one-handed."

Boxers are constantly banged up entering fights due to the rigorous training they go through. Mayweather put it best when explaining that he came through with a virtuoso performance even though he wasn't at full health either, per SportsCenter:

Pac-Man could have backed out of the fight ahead of time, but there would have been a huge amount of backlash had he done so. Because of that, Pacquiao deserves some praise for deciding to go through with it anyway.

He also could have divulged the injury prior to the contest, but that would have given his opponent a distinct mental edge.

Those who are in on the lawsuit against Pacquiao seem to feel as though they were robbed of their hard-earned money due to the fact that they didn't have all the facts at their disposal. That may be true, but they should rest assured in knowing that the shoulder injury had little, if any, impact on the fight.

Numbers don't often lie in sports, and the statistics suggest that Mayweather was dominant. As seen in this tweet courtesy of CompuBox, Money threw more punches and landed a much higher percentage of punches than Pac-Man:

It can be argued that Pacquiao's shoulder adversely impacted his power, but it doesn't explain the fact that he was extremely inaccurate. With just 81 punches landed, Pac-Man had little chance to win even if he was at his peak in terms of punching power.

MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas played host to another vintage Mayweather performance on May 2. Nobody has ever claimed that Money is the most exciting fighter in the world, yet he is still popular and is the biggest pay-per-view draw in the world due to his persona.

Also, fans want to experience greatness, and even if Mayweather's greatness isn't the type that gets people out of their seats, it is greatness nonetheless.

If anyone is to blame for this fight falling flat, perhaps it is those who hyped it up to unreachable levels. Some were led to believe that it would be among the most exciting and competitive fights of all time, but what we actually knew about the boxers conflicted with that significantly.

Above all else, there may be some bitterness that Mayweather dominated so thoroughly since he was viewed as the villain, while Pacquiao was generally viewed as the hero.

People are willing to pay in order to see villains receive their comeuppance, and while that happens more often than not in movies and television shows, it is never a given in the real world. The so-called villain prevailed this time around, and it left a large portion of the viewing audience with a bad taste in its mouth.

When push came to shove, the better pure boxer outboxed his opponent. It wasn't always pretty and it wasn't always exciting, but it was everything that a Mayweather fight usually is, which is why the shock and amazement is grossly misguided.

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