Manny Pacquiao, from the Philippines, left, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., embrace in the ring at the finish of their welterweight title fight on Saturday, May 2, 2015 in Las Vegas. AP
Floyd Mayweather had said several times before that his fight with Manny Pacquiao didn’t define his legacy and neither did one of his other 47 professional bouts.
But Mayweather, who insisted that his September 12 fight with Andre Berto will be his last, did single out his record-breaking bout with the Filipino ring icon as his most significant.
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“I’m truly blessed with how my career has went. Every fight has played a major role but my most important fight of my career was number 48,” Mayweather told BoxingScene.com, referring to his unanimous decision victory over Pacquiao last May where he stretched his undefeated streak to 48-0.
“Even though every fight played a major key, everyone else was saying Pacquiao was the guy, that Floyd Mayweather was ducking and dodging. Just like I do in the ring, I bobbed and weaved [comments from critics] and went out to the ring and did what I had to do. No matter how I won as long as I won,” he said.
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The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which was five years in the making, broke every existing financial record in combat sports including Pay-Per-View buys.