Maidana had night of his career but fell a little short
Mayweather chose to back to the ropes to fight a more exciting style for the boxing fans that prefer blood and guts to skill. Toney Weaks permitted the low blows, head butts, rabbit punches, kneeing, arm twisting without penalty. Maidana rehydrated to 165 lbs for a functional weight advantage. Maidana got in some good shots. I think he won a few rounds, and a few rounds were close. Mayweather clearly one about half the rounds. If you give Maidana all the close rounds you could conceivably call it a draw.
Bottom line, Maidana did about the best he could do short of a freak knock down of Mayweather. I had it 6 to 3 with 3 even. If I had pick a winner in each round I would say 8-4.
Pacquio would beat Maidana even easier than Mayweather beat him. All of the head butting, rabbit punching and low blows don't work against a fighter with great footwork or a competent referee. Which PACman would bring. Plus PAC man punches with full force. If mayweather decides to rematch Maidana and use lateral movement instead of laying on the ropes for Gatti fans mayweather would win every round. Mayweather and PAC man is the real fight. If PAC is on roids it's a toss up. Mayweather may or may not be able to deal with someone that can buzz you with even grazing shots like PAC can do when he's on roids. If pac's clean mayweather will beat PAC as easily as mayweather beat Marquez. Who just knocked PAC man out cold.
I really get sick of fighters getting credit for being better fighters than they are when they are just really dirty b fighters like Maidana and hatton. Or excellent cheaters like margarito and PAC man. Or both like Hopkins. I am not saying that bhop, margarito, PAC aren't great fighters. It's just that they are elevated even beyond there ability by the public for cheating.
Maidana is a sparring partner for Pac Man or Mayweather. Maidana did his best and got in some good shots as Mayweather tried to manufacture some excitement and tried to avoid Maidanas head. Maidana is a championship level challenger but he's not de Latoya, canelo, sugar Shane, corrales, margarito, forest. cotto, Marquez, castillo,
Maidana = more guerro, gatti, manfredo, Corley, rios.
Too much size
Martinez is not really a great fighter. Never was. Cotto is the better boxer. Speed about even. Over the hillness edge goes to Martinez, he's a little fresher. But you have an amazing welterweight that's past his prime in cotto vs a very good middlewieght that's only a little past his prime. Cotto keeps it close but can't hurt the bigger Martinez who out points cotto in a competitive fight.
If you retire undefeated you beat everybody you fought
Congratulations Cotto! I did not think he could hurt the larger Marquez. Cotto is of one of my favorite fighters. At 147 he is top 5 in this era. I would like to see him at 154 in a rematch against Mayweather or a steroid free Manny. I don't know if he would win but he would do well and get a couple of 8 figure pay days.
Too much technique
Mayweather will avoid a big shot early. And go into the 6th round about even. Anything can happen with a big puncher like manny but Manny lost any good chance of winning when he agreed to Olympic drug testing. I always felt that mayweather could beat Marquez and manny on the same night. If they were all true 140's I wouldn't say that but if look at the math it doesn't add up for Manny.
2" in height for May, 5" reach may. Hand Speed even. Power Pacqiou. Stamina mayweather. Foot speed pacqiuo. Defense mayweather. Offense pacqiou. Technique mayweather. Boxing iq mayweather.
I think the road to victories for pacqiou are early knock downs. Over trained or shot mayweather. Controversial decision.
In real life what will happen is mayweather and pacqiou will go into the 6th round about even and mayweather will start to get hit less frequently. Paqiou will start getting hit with big flush shots. All the fireworks will be over. Mayweather will back pacqiou up at times. Mayweather will not go in for the kill due to respect for pacqious power. At the end of the fight pacqiou will bite down and expend all of his energy and perhaps take the 12th round from a cautious mayweather. 3-3 for first 6 rounds with one slip. 4-1 mayweather for rounds 7-11 with one knock down. 12 th round pacqiou. Mayweather 7 rounds to 5 with one knockdown. Scores will average 115-112. Boring fight for the blood and guts fans. Nobody will want to see it again. Mayweather will call out GGG.