Who landed more punches in the super-fight between Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao?
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao met in "The Fight of the Century" on May 2, 2015, at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The battle between two of the most decorated boxers of this generation broke all pay-per-view (PPV) records. To this day, it is the highest-selling PPV event in history, with 4.6 million buys.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Manny Pacquiao via unanimous decision after twelve grueling rounds. Many have protested the decision, including Manny Pacquiao himself. However, a look at the official punching stats lays all doubts to rest.
As is visible above, Floyd Mayweather threw 435 punches to Manny Pacquiao's 429. 'Money' landed 148 of those at 34% accuracy, while 'Pac-Man' landed 81 at 19% accuracy.
Both Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have always had incredible jabs. However, 'Money' was in a different league during the fight. He landed 67 of an incredible 267 attempted jabs, while Pacquiao managed to land 18 of 193.
Manny Pacquiao suffered an injury to his right shoulder leading up to the fight, and while it had largely healed, he evidently injured it again during the fourth round of the fight itself. Needless to say, this played a huge role in the southpaw fighter's jabbing and parrying ability.
The only aspect of the fight where Manny Pacquiao did better numbers than Floyd Mayweather was the total number of power punches thrown. 'Pac-Man' threw 236 to Mayweather's 168. But here, too, 'Money' emerged as the more accurate boxer, landing 81 power punches to Pacquiao's 63.
The average punches landed per round were 12 of an attempted 36 for Floyd Mayweather. Manny Pacquiao averaged 6 of an attempted 35. Clearly, on average, 'Money' was almost twice as sharp as 'Pac-Man' on the night of the fight.
Find out here: How much money has Manny Pacquiao earned from his Boxing fights?
Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquaio remains the biggest fight in history:
It's been six years, but this is still one of the most talked-about fights in history. It took an unreasonably long time to come together, and when it was finally done, people felt it didn't live up to their expectations. 'Money' has always been criticized for being too defensive, but that's probably how you get to 50-0.
You cannot argue with the fact that Floyd Mayweather is a defensive genius. He is also a PPV king, with the second-largest PPV fight being his bout against Conor McGregor.
Heading into the fight, Mayweather and Pacquiao were ranked No.1 and No.2 on Ring Magazine's pound-for-pound list, respectively. 'Money' came into the fight with a record of 47-0 with 26 KOs, while 'Pac-Man' boasted a record of 57-5-2 with 38 KOs.
The fight was so highly anticipated that people bought tickets to the weigh-ins and packed an arena to simply watch the two fighters make weight and stare down.
To this day, Manny Pacquiao remains one of the toughest challenges Floyd Mayweather has had to face in his career. While 'Money' may have retired from professional boxing, he will return to the ring in an exhibition bout against YouTuber-turned-boxer Logan Paul on June 6, 2021.