Now the dust has settled on May 2 - Manny and PED accusations

[DeadLikeMe]

Maybe like 1 out of 100 people thinks it was a close fight, and they're only desperate because they're ashamed of Manny's failure in the biggest fight of his career.

[bigjavi973]

I agree. But I think after the initial shock wore off, Manny resolved to fight back. Like in the fourth you could see he was pressing and in the sixth he went balls out (I actually think he hurt Floyd in the sixth). But I remember with about 20 seconds left in the sixth, Floyd landed several clean body and head shots that sorta backed him off...for good.

true that

[sunny31]

why's this fight being brought up again?

Also, if anything, its Mayweather and cheating we should be worried about.

As I said in my first post would like to keep it to what happened in the ring. I think a lot of people missed the actual essence of the fight in all the hoopla. Both fighters fought good fights, and I feel Manny hasn't got the credit he deserves for showing skill and technique in situations where people often downplayed his abilities in those areas. Many people thought that a randomly tested Manny who chose to box with Floyd would get Gatti'd, and that was a million miles away from the what happened.

All people have been talking about is what a disappointment the fight was and laid most of the blame on Pacquiao's shoulders. I totally disagree with this and thought it was a good tactical fight where Floyd edged a lot of rounds with tremendous defensive abilities and basically Floyd being Floyd.

[sunny31]

Maybe like 1 out of 100 people thinks it was a close fight, and they're only desperate because they're ashamed of Manny's failure in the biggest fight of his career.

It wasn't a close fight, but it was competitive...there is a difference. Just because a fight isn't overly physical doesn't mean it isn't very difficult. Floyd was struggling to land himself and land anything significant. Floyd was able to create some daylight between them in most rounds, but if you observe the fight round by round it was very cagey and both guys were creating a lot of problems for each other.

[IMDAZED]

It wasn't a close fight, but it was competitive...there is a difference. Just because a fight isn't overly physical doesn't mean it isn't very difficult. Floyd was struggling to land himself and land anything significant. Floyd was able to create some daylight between them in most rounds, but if you observe the fight round by round it was very cagey and both guys were creating a lot of problems for each other.

It was competitive for six rounds.

[b00g13man]

I actually disagree here.....

1st round..... 1st right hand that mayweather lands and pac hesitates from that point on... even in the second round when floyd/pac clinched you can see it in his face.

There were two stiff right hands in the first, and I think it was over after that.

[sunny31]

I'm not sure I know what you mean by struggling physically. He was tired at the end of the sixth. I thought that much was clear. He kinda took rounds 7,8 and 9 off after that. I think he was hurt in the eighth too.

Struggling physically would mean getting tired, or fatigued. I felt he definitely took 7 off which I was disappointed with so you have a point there. But 8 and 9 I didn't think he did. It seemed every time he won a round or hurt Floyd the previous round he was really lackadaisical in the following round which I'm not sure was tiredness or a lack of tactical awareness, or Floyd feeling urgency and changing gears, could be a combination of all those things to be honest.

[IMDAZED]

Struggling physically would mean getting tired, or fatigued. I felt he definitely took 7 off which I was disappointed with so you have a point there. But 8 and 9 I didn't think he did. It seemed every time he won a round or hurt Floyd the previous round he was really lackadaisical in the following round which I'm not sure was tiredness or a lack of tactical awareness, or Floyd feeling urgency and changing gears, could be a combination of all those things to be honest.

He lost 8 and 9 big and threw little in both. He did nothing in rounds 7,8, and 9.

[FrankieClutch]

First off I feel Pacquiao has got a bad rap after the fight because a lot of people were building this fight to be a 50/50 which it never was. The shoulder injury thing I guess didn't help, but I would prefer to stick to boxing in this thread, and kind of defend Manny's performance and also address the black cloud that was put over him by the Mayweather's, Malignaggi, etc.

What happened to the small weak fighter that would get knocked out as soon he was randomly tested? I could pull out a lot of interviews where the Mayweather's went on record to this tune. As well as many people on here. Regardless of the result Manny was CLEARLY the stronger fighter on the night and he hurt Floyd with less than full blooded shots. I am not saying that he never participated in PED use, I am not sure either way, but he certainly didn't look any different to what we have seen in the past, in fact to me anyway he looked a little sharper than he had recently if not the normal trend of decline we have been seeing since Margarito.

There is no doubting Floyd clearly won and pretty much Willie Pepp'd Manny, his defence and skill was the difference which most educated fans predicted would happen. But Manny also showed great skills in the ring that night, and in fact you could argue that he landed the better, cleaner, and more damaging shots in the fight. He showed an aptitude at range and in a tactical boxing match with one of the greatest tactical boxers ever! Normally by the second half of a fight Floyd has dented his opponent and causes damage by sitting down on his shots and throwing some effective combinations, he never really got control of Manny in that way, that is real credit to Pacquiao because to be honest I expected him to start getting lit up by the 9th round.

Just some conclusions in the fight that seem to have been overlooked:

- Manny is an extremely underrated technician, he caused Floyd more technical problems then any of you would care to see that night.
- Manny is not an aggressive volume pressure fighter, he throws volume when he is attacked or his opponent stands still. So why did everyone expect him to fight like Mike Tyson or Roberto Duran in Montreal?
- Most people were disappointed with Manny's performance, I was not, I found some aspects of his performance extremely impressive.
- The one thing I can criticise him for is not pressing enough in the latter part of the fight when it was clear he was down.
- Ultimately I don't think the injury lost him the fight, I go back to my original thoughts in 2009, I thought Manny would push him and give him a tough night, but I never thought he could win (although after Cotto I wasn't so sure, that is when the fight should have happened).
- I admire both of these guys and they are more suited to being 15 round fighters, I have never seen two fighters who retain their technique all the way through a 12 round fight, I think this has set them apart from every other fighter in their generation, in my head I question whether this is down to superior strength and conditioning or something else?

Its time to give both guys credit - plus the misconception that the fight was a one sided rout is just not true. Manny showed his greatness in the ring that night, Floyd was just that chunk better. I think Floyd would have done that to many great fighters.

I agree with a lot of what you said. I scored it 7-5 Floyd but could see 8-4. It was a very tactical fight in which I never thought Manny could do as well as he did. It didn't live up to the massive hype, but it was a competitive fight and one I wouldn't mind seeing again just to see the adjustments made by both fighters.

[sunny31]

It was competitive for six rounds.

You say that but I thought 8 or 9 was close (can't remember which), and thought 10 could have been given to Pacquiao. But agree that Floyd was better in the championship rounds.

To be honest I had it 5-3 after 8 that is what I remember. So conceivably my score would be 9-3 8-4, could see 10-2.

What do you make of the whole PED angle? Did you expect Floyd to be more dominant? Do you think Manny looked any different?