12 Reasons Floyd Mayweather Will Defeat Manny Pacquiao

12. Punch Accuracy

One of the many attributes that puts Floyd Mayweather into the elite company of boxing’s all-time greats is his punch accuracy. While Mayweather does not dish out punches at high volume like a Manny Pacquiao, what he throws, he lands.

Currently, Mayweather throws an average of 39 punches per round – 18 punches below the sport’s average of 57 per round. 

However, in his last two fights – both against the super-busy Marcos Maidana – Mayweather banked rounds where he landed anywhere between 50% and 70% of his punches. Maidana’s connect percentage in his BEST round sat at 30% (26% total in the first fight, 22% in the second).

Manny Pacquiao is an in-and-out type of fighter with unbelievable head movement. He throws punches in bunches from awkward angles and uses his impeccable footwork to get out of dodge. 

That being said, Manny still gets hit as much as a pedestrian fighter. 

At the beginning of 2013, Pacquiao’s opponents were landing an average 33.6% of their punches. Since then, Pacquiao has been in there with slower, less experienced targets in Brandon Rios, Timothy Bradley, and Chris Algieri and done well. Pacquiao didn’t take much punishment from any of them, but none of these guys produce anything close to Mayweather’s hand speed or punching efficiency.