LAS VEGAS: A devastated Manny Pacquiao insisted he believed he had beaten Floyd Mayweather despite judges awarding a unanimous points win to his opponent in the richest fight in history on Saturday.
Pacquiao, 36, said after the Las Vegas superfight he felt he had done enough to be awarded the decision against Mayweather, who cemented his place in the pantheon of boxing greats with a defensive masterclass.
“It was a good fight. I thought I won the fight. He didn’t do nothing. He was always moving outside. I got him many times. I saw his punches,” Pacquiao said.
But Pacquiao admitted he had struggled to connect with the elusive Mayweather.
“He was moving around too much, it wasn’t easy throwing punches at him. If he would’ve stayed in one place, then I could have thrown punches,” Pacquiao said.
“I was cutting him (off) and countering. I wanted to fight.”
The clash between two of the most talented fighters of their generation was more than five years in the making, with no love lost between the camps.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, agreed with his boxer that Mayweather should have lost on the cards.
“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. But it didn’t go that way,” said Roach when asked about Mayweather's legs after stating for weeks the unbeaten fighter's legs were shot.