Still undefeated.
Floyd Mayweather -- now 48-and-0 -- beat Manny Pacquiao in a 12-round unanimous decision Saturday night, easily dancing away from one straight-ahead flurry after another, racking up points by sticking counter-punches and staying off the ropes -- the only place he looked even remotely vulnerable.
"First off, I want to thank God for this victory," Mayweather said after the decision was announced, with two judges scoring the fight 116 to 112, and one 118-110. "I want to thank all the fans that came to Las Vegas. I want to thank all the fans around the world that supported this event. I take my hat off to Manny Pacquiao. He's a hell of a fighter."
But not enough of one to track down Mayweather's slippery ways.
For at least a few rounds it looked like Pacquiao could challenge, with the Filipino fighter walking Mayweather into the ropes and corners for flurries of combinations in rounds 2 and 4. But time and again Mayweather slipped away, bringing the fight to the center of the ring where Pacquiao's straight-ahead attacks were ineffective against Mayweather's defenses.
In between rounds, Mayweather disobeyed his father's instructions to do more, content instead to weave away from Pacquiao's punches, which got wilder and more desperate as the fight went on. And you better believe that Mayweather made him pay, almost every time, with counters that didn't daze Pacquiao -- but they count all the same.
Though he was upbeat and smiling before the fight, Pacquiao seemed unhappy about the style -- and the outcome.
"It's a good fight. I thought I won the fight. He didn't do nothing. All he did was move outside," Pacquiao said.
With 148 punches landed (Mayweather) to 81 (Pacquiao), he might have been the only person in the building who thought he'd won it. Though the fight was spirited at times and technically masterful -- at least on Mayweather's part -- fans around the world expressed their disgust with what amounted to a defensive struggle.
Including one guy who knows a thing or two about a dramatic finish to a boxing match.
We waited 5 years for that... #underwhelmed #MayPac— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) May 3, 2015
But would any outcome have lived up to the hype?
"The Fight of the Century" it was called, and for good reason: After five years of negotiations that kept falling apart, the world's best living boxers would finally meet, even if it was at the twilight of their careers. Mayweather, the brash, undefeated defensive specialist, and Pacquiao, the soft-spoken, unrelenting punching machine, with a $300 million purse on the line at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Fighting for the unified welterweight title, Floyd Mayweather weighed in at 146 pounds, with Pacquiao at 145. Mayweather arrived at the MGM Grand grim-faced in an over-the-top ensemble of black, gold and white; Pacquiao in a colorful T-shirt, red headband and a gentle smile.
Just the celebrity contingent itself, from sports, Hollywood, Washington, Wall Street and points between, was staggering: Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington, Tom Brady, Magic Johnson, Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, Bradley Cooper, Jay Z and Beyonce, Jamie Foxx singing the national anthem (packing more notes into "brave" than we've ever seen before) -- plus dozens and dozens more -- made the crowd something to rival even the Oscars in terms of star power.
Though what they saw wasn't as dramatic as they had hoped, it was a technically brilliant match, with an outcome that could've easily been predicted: Mayweather in a defensive gem.