Floyd Mayweather Jr (left) punches Manny Pacquiao during their welterweight title fight on Saturday, May 2 in Las Vegas. - File

Unlike the persons threatening to stop watching boxing because they believe Manny Pacquiao got a raw deal from the judges in last Saturday's fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in their so-called 'Fight of the Century' in Las Vegas, I am in complete agreement with the decision.

While it might well be true that Pacquiao was the one taking the fight to Mayweather and that at times, the ultra-defensive Mayweather looked ungainly, backing away and seemingly unwilling to mix it up with the frisky Filipino, the truth is, the American landed more telling punches and acquitted himself far better than his opponent.

The scoring of the experienced trio of judges (Glenn Feldman, Burt Clements and Dave Moretti) aside, based on the much-respected CompuBox System, which has been in use in boxing with limited controversy for over 30 years, Mayweather landed far more jabs and power punches than Pacquiao and was by far the more effective fighter.

With CompuBox showing that Mayweather landed 148 of the 435 punches he threw during the fight to the mere 81 land by Pacquiao from his 429 punches, the statistics heavily favoured Mayweather. Based on his statistics, Mayweather landed 34 percent of his punches to Pacquiao's tame 19 percent,

Power punches

If one should further break down the statistics into jabs and power punches, CompuBox had it all the way for Mayweather, as while he threw 267 jabs and landed 67, Pacquiao landed only 18 of his 193 jabs. The situation was similar with the power punches, which saw Mayweather throwing 168 punches and landing 81, a 48 percent connect rate against Pacquiao's 63 from 236, a mere 27 percent connection rate.

After years spent watching and listening to various boxing experts analysing fights, I have long come to the conclusion that many factors besides what happens in the ring influence how people judge boxing. While some folks love the raw power of the likes of Mike Tyson, others are all for the guile of say, a Muhammad Ali.

While some older boxing fans will say the 1965 showdown between the 'peek-a-boo king' Floyd Patterson and the 'dancing master' Ali was boxing at its best, I am sure there are other fans who would probably rebuke them, saying no fight can be reasonably compared to the awesome 1985 'fistic brawl' between Thomas 'Hitman' Hearns and Marvin Haglar.

Different perspectives

As far as I am concerned, while we would all like to believe that we are objective, the truth is that because we all have different tastes, we sometimes put what we would like to see before what we actually see. That is why people sometimes go to an event, especially sports, and come away with two entirely different perspectives, leaving others to wonder if they were at the same event.

Mayweather was my pick going into the fight, but I do admit to having my own biases. However, with the judges and the CompuBox system on the side I have taken, I feel comfortable that I have very good reason to believe I have gotten it right in believing Mayweather won.

Some persons are of the view that there should be a rematch, especially since news emerged after the fight that Pacquiao was carrying an injury and was not at his physical best going into the bout. Frankly speaking, I believe Mayweather is a defensive genius, and with his ability to evade punches, he would still nullify Pacquiao easily, regardless of the Filipino's state of readiness.

As to my personal bias in regards to the different styles in boxing, while I do appreciate the raw power of the likes of Mike Tyson, George Foreman, Haglar and Hearns, I much prefer the sublime skills and ring generalship of Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, who both had the capacity to make fearsome power-punchers look clumsy in the ring.

Feel free to send your feedback to adrianfrater@hotmail.com.