Photos: Mayweather-Pacquiao MONSTER Fight Gallery

By Jake Donovan 

The Event of the Century didn’t produce much of a fight, but further confirmed Floyd Mayweather’s presence as an all-time great. The unbeaten welterweight king delivered a virtuoso performance in scoring a decision over Manny Pacquiao in their long awaited pound-for-pound showdown Saturday evening at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Scores were 118-110 and 116-112 (twice) in a bout that – objectively speaking – played out as most suspected, even if fans optimistically hoped for something more. 

Many figured Pacquiao's best shot at beating Mayweather was to attack him early, throw a large volume of punches and make sure to keep the fight in close quarters. That never came close to happen for any sustained period, with Pacquiao only enjoying pockets of success on the night.

Mayweather jumped out to an early lead and never really relinquished it, though his penchant for resting during rounds - in effect giving the judges a chance to score the other way - didn't sit well with his father and trainer. Floyd Mayweather Sr. ripped into his son prior to the seventh round and again later in the fight, but the unbeaten welterweight king clearly knew what he was doing as the judges properly scored his ring generalship.

With the fight well out of reach, Pacquiao needed to go for broke down the stretch. The Filipino southpaw simply couldn't get his offense untracked, although he later revealed that he thought he won the fight and didn't need to take the later rounds.

It's something he will have to live with for perhaps the rest of his own Hall of Fame career. For now, he's forced to live with his third loss in the span of six fights, as he falls to 57-6-2 (38KOs). The setback snaps a three-fight win streak and also denied him a shot at becoming the first fighter in history to win World lineal championships in five weight classes.

Mayweather advances to 48-0 (26KOs), with the win. The night marked the fifth defense of the second reign of his World welterweight championship.

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox