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Carrie Stroup here with breaking news as Sportsbook.com has released Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight odds. You can bet on this fight NOW at Sportsbook.com and receive up to $250 in FREE CASH here.
Sportsbook.com Line: Mayweather -160/Pacquiao +130
Over/Under for Rounds: 10.5 over -145
At long last, it finally appears that the two best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet, unbeaten Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, will go toe-to-toe in the ring. This fight could happen as soon as May 5 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, but details still have to be ironed out.
This will be an epic battle with two fighters that truly can’t stand one another, and each one trying to prove he is the best fighter of all-time. The betting line is nearly even because the southpaw Pacquiao is coming off what his trainer Freddie Roach called “the only bad fight he’s had in 10 years,” when he barely beat Juan Manuel Marquez in a majority decision in November. Mayweather returned from a 16-month layoff in September and knocked out Victor Ortiz in the fourth round. But other than Marquez, Pacquiao has performed better against common opponents than Mayweather, and appears to be just a step quicker than Mayweather.
The 5-foot-8 Mayweather turns 35 in February, but is just 22 months older than Pacquiao. A major factor in this fight though, could be that at 72 inches, Mayweather has a reach five inches longer than 5-foot-6½ Pacquiao (67” reach), something that could aid his quick-striking ability.
Mayweather (42-0-0) has never lost a fight in his career, and has beaten some top-notch opponents including a fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz in his last fight this past September. However, this was just his second KO in his past seven fights. Mayweather has only been knocked down once in his entire career though, way back in 2001 to Carlos Hernandez.
Pacquiao (54-3-2) has rattled off 15 straight wins (eight by knockout) since his last loss to Erik Morales in March 2005. Although his past five opponents all lasted 12 rounds, Pacquiao won three of those fights by lopsided unanimous decisions and one by TKO. Pacquiao has not been knocked down since March 2003 (to Serikzhan Yeshmagambetov).
There have a been several common opponents for these two combatants recently, a list which includes Shane Mosley, Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya and Juan Manuel Marquez. Both fighters outlasted Shane Mosley in easy unanimous decisions, but Pacquiao knocked out Hatton in Round 2 in ‘09, while Mayweather needed 10 rounds to score a TKO over Hatton one year earlier. Pacquiao pummeled De La Hoya in 2008, forcing him to retire in Round 8, while Mayweather barely beat De La Hoya 19 months earlier on a split decision.
However, Mayweather beat Marquez more handily, winning a one-sided unanimous decision with scores of 120-107, 119-108 and 118-109. Marquez went the distance three times with Pacquiao (draw, split-decision loss and majority-decision loss), but despite the controversial decisions, Pac Man dropped Marquez three times in the first round of the draw, and did not get knocked down once in the fight trilogy.
