Floyd Mayweather may not be the most unanimously beloved figure in boxing, but there was little denying his unanimous-decision victory over Manny Pacquiao on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.As evidenced by David Kull of ESPN, Money pulled away from Las Vegas with all judges ruling in his favour to claim a 118-110, 116-112, 116-112 triumph and take his career record to 48-0:In truth, it was a result to be expected. The unbeaten veteran has built an empire on his ability to defend against the best and did so once again in Nevada, riding the storm of whatever Pacquiao had to throw at him and dishing it back in more than equal measure.And that was one of the more shocking turns on Saturday, as Mayweather flipped the script by dominating the matchup in punches thrown and landed, according to the official Compubox statistics:That was something not all were forecasting, as Pac-Man brought with him a reputation as the faster and more furious of the pair, althoughKevin Iole of Yahoo reveals there was perhaps more to this matter than met the eye.As it turns out, Pacquiao suffered an injury to his right shoulder "three to four weeks" before the fight, and despite receiving inflammatory injections prior to the bout, he was allegedly denied a shot on the eve of his biggest career fixture.As a result, Pacquiao accumulated a punch tally far below his usual average and was forced to use his left as the default weapon of choice.Promoter Bob Arum noted in his post-match comments that injury assuredly affected the storyline of the match, perhaps teasing the idea of these two boxing icons entering the ring one more time, per the Associated Press:Arum said Pacquiao's camp thought he would be allowed the anti-inflammatory shot because he had gotten them during training and they had been approved by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. But he said paperwork filed with the commission didn't check the injury box, and the Nevada commission ruled against the request for a shot"The ruling made tonight affected the outcome of the fight," Arum said.In the end, Mayweather's punching accuracy of 34 percent was almost double that of Pacquiao, who managed just 19 percent, landing a lowly 81 in total compared to his opponent's 148.Bleacher Report gave their reaction to the result in the immediate aftermath:Considering the high stakes of the bout and the age of the two fighters, Pacquiao may have been able to shrug off any lingering pain and fight just as he had trained for the fixturefree of worry.As it was, the denial of an injection may be looked upon as effectively picking up the shoulder injury hours before stepping into the ring with arguably the greatest boxer of all time.The truth certainly remains that this fight would have been all the more entertaining had it come to fruition in 2010, when fans were at their most fervent in demanding a clash between two such respected contenders.According to BT Sport's Ian Darke, however, Mayweather's greatest attribute might be in knowing who to fight and when to fight them:In his post-match comments, Mayweather did confirm the 49th and last fight of his career will come in five months' time, according toSportsCenter:Whether that curtain call will come against Pacquiao is another question, but the promise of another payday quite as grand as this may still be tempting for the two.Controversy or not, Saturday saw Mayweather deservedly extend his boxing legacy against what was put in front of him. It may not go down well with the masses, but his tale as a boxing legend turns one more, dramatic page.
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