Floyd Mayweather the magician leaves Manny Pacquiao with a shattered look

COMMENT: Another flawless display as an under-appreciated genius, the best of his generation, maintains his record

(Getty Images)

There was magic in Las Vegas on Saturday night when Floyd Mayweather sweetly exposed as an illusion the dreams of millions around the globe left gripping a betting slip that said “Manny Pacquiao to win”.

Mayweather is now 48 and zero as a prizefighter and not an inch closer to receiving the credit he is due for finally making his one, lifelong deadly foe look like a celebrity pal that had popped by the gym for a good-natured spar. There were enough of them at ringside, actors playing boxers for the big night.

It was Pacquiao that needed the magic in the end, needed to be able to travel back in time six years and then possibly, and only possibly, there is chance that he would have beaten the Mayweather from Saturday night. At ringside the agitated hexes from Pacquiao’s mother failed to make Mayweather disappear and her spells, the Hollywood front rows and the relief that they were throwing punches made the event memorable, the fight often forgettable.

Pacquiao tried at the end to say that he thought he won, blaming Mayweather’s reluctance to stand and trade punches – it was a painful deception, possibly caused by any number of stinging shots that rocked his granite head. In Pacquiao’s corner his whispering confidante Freddie Roach dismally failed to penetrate beyond the boxer’s vacant look. It is a look I have seen from the fifth row before on the faces of Mayweather’s victims, a shattered look they have when they finally realise they are fighting a boxing ghost, a man they simply can’t tame with their traditional gifts.

Mayweather was unusually aggressive from the start, smartly neglecting his jab to try and land with short lefts and a looping right behind Pacquiao’s guard from the first bell. It was part of the trick. Pacquiao got comfortable, had success in rounds three and four, and just when the celebrity-juiced crowd started to stand and roar, just as the bell sounded for round five with the score two each, Mayweather adjusted; he started to jab and the fight was over. Pacquiao returned to his corner each round from the end of the fifth with a disturbingly distant look on his friendly face. He needed a boxing exorcism right then to get rid of the man that had stolen his fighting soul in front of our very eyes. That has to be the definition of boxing magic.

It was a Mayweather masterclass of control, timing and power that first tamed and then left the Filipino darling, Pacquiao, scratching his starched hair in confusion and hitting the rarefied air in the MGM ring for round after round.

One judge made it 10 rounds to two, the other two had it eight rounds to four, but the only numbers that mattered were the tiny digits printed on the cheques the two men received: Mayweather had the first of his instalments and left the press conference flashing a cheque for $100m. There is nothing in a boxer’s contract that says he has to suffer for his glory, and Mayweather is not stupid.

An excuse was weakly offered, a shoulder injury sustained two weeks ago, and then immediately coated in regret by Pacquiao and his coach, Roach, as the shattered duo failed miserably to accept what had happened in the ring. There was some confusion about an attempt to get a painkiller for the injured right shoulder in the hours before the fight; the details only detract from the fight and, to be honest, are irrelevant in the bright Las Vegas dawn.

It was not a classic, it was never going to leave the canvas swilling in blood and guts, but it was a pure performance of defensive boxing by Mayweather. It was, put simply, exactly what he does and exactly what he promised.

The crowd booed Mayweather’s tactics but – and this is harsh to say – perhaps they should have been booing the innocence of Pacquiao’s often poor efforts. It takes two to tango in a boxing ring, especially when the fighters are about to split in excess of $300m, but it also requires that both men extensively produce their best work; on Saturday night Mayweather fulfilled his obligation and Pacquiao was the letdown. It is harsh, but it is true.

Their post-fight praise for each other was wholesome enough to leave a window for a repeat. The shoulder injury will fit perfectly with the inevitable calls for another fight, another spectacular roll of the dice. However, the reality – a scarcity in a city that had become quite threatening late Saturday night – is that after six years of delaying, Mayweather did what he pleased in 36 minutes of art. It is hard to imagine what Pacquiao and Roach could conjure up differently if they were given four more months to prepare for a fight that they each admitted they had studied for since 2010. “Perhaps Manny was a bit flat-footed, but I still think we did enough,” said Roach, who was pale with exhaustion and the daily rigours of the Parkinson’s medication he takes to survive. He and Manny and the hundreds of sad-eyed Filipinos in the entourage traipsed from the defeat late, late at night without any of the swagger of a flock truly convinced they had been robbed.

Mayweather, now 38, insisted he will fight again in September, then retire. Only part of that is true: he will fight in September and then, as a man free from all commercial shackles, he will promote his own 50th fight on a channel somewhere that is prepared to break all of Saturday’s financial records.

Amir Khan, who was a ringside guest, will not be on Mayweather’s list. “Too young, too fast and I will tell Floyd that,” I was told by somebody at the heart of the often annoying Money Team, as Mayweather calls the people he employs.

Pacquiao is a congressman and idol in the Philippines, his ring legacy is secure and will not be harmed by Saturday’s failure to inflict defeat on Mayweather. He will fight again, a safe outing in Macau, and then, at some point in about December, we will all be asked to forget what we saw in the Las Vegas ring, ignore the reality and then Mayweather, with a sleight of hand like the boxing magician he is, will tell us they are doing it all again.

Mayweather left the stage on Saturday night after his flawless display and promised that he would ditch all his world title belts today. The belts are now curious relics to Mayweather, reminders that there is something tangible at stake each time a fighter enters a ring with him and clutches wildly at the tiniest of victories. Mayweather is not the nicest fella in the world, his fighting style is not always easy on the eye, but he is the best of this generation and fully deserving of a place at boxing’s high table.

We will, trust me, miss him when he goes.

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REACTION

Mike Tyson

He controlled the fight, he has great endurance, he did a really good job. It’s his era, his time. He is in invincible mode now - no-one can stand with him at this particular moment

Frank Bruno

He’s got to go down as one of the greats. I think he can go on until he’s 50 in boxing because he’s got the secret to looking after himself

Carl Froch

Mayweather was sharp, accurate. I wanted to see more from Pacquiao, I am disappointed. I was a bit disappointed with Pacquiao saying he thought he won. You can see when you are getting beat and outboxed. The best man won.”