Floyd Mayweather Jr. proved why he is considered as the best fighter of this era as he outlasted Manny Pacquiao in their highly anticipated showdown on Saturday night at MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Fans expected Mayweather to engage in a slugfest, but the reigning pound-for-pound leaned on his trademark defense and precise attack to escape with a unanimous decision victory against his biggest rival.

Judge Glenn Feldman and Burt Clements scored the fight 116-112, while Dave Moretti had it 118-110 all in favor of Mayweather, who improved to 48-0 and unified the World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization welterweight title. The unbeaten champion also took home the special belt created by WBC.

Mayweather did not give Pacquiao a chance to execute his fight plan, frustrating the Filipino boxing icon with his constant movement and vaunted shoulder roll. While Mayweather uttered harsh words for his biggest rival over the past several years, the reigning pound-for-pound king had nothing but praises for Pacquiao.

"He's a hell of a fighter. I take my hat off to Manny Pacquiao," Mayweather said after the match via ESPN. "Now I see why he's one of the guys at the pinnacle."

Pacquiao, who vowed before the match that he will hand Mayweather the first defeat of his career, had his moments in the fight, particularly in the fourth round where he staggered the Grand Rapids native, but the Filipino boxing superstar failed to capitalize as Mayweather regained control of the match.

Pacquiao said, though, he thought he won the fight because Mayweather did not do enough to win. The 36-year-old said he was never hurt in the fight, and Mayweather just kept moving away from him on Saturday night.

"It's a good fight. I thought I won the fight," Pacquiao said in a post-fight interview. "He didn't do anything. He moved outside. I got him many more times with a lot of punches, and I thought I won the fight; I was never hurt. I was very surprised at the scores."

Pacquiao, who dropped to 57-6-2 and lost his WBO welterweight title, revealed he hurt his shoulder in the third round of the match, but he reiterated that he is not making any excuses because he thought he did enough to win.

The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight reportedly generated live gate revenue of $74 million and is also expected to break the existing records for pay-per-view buys and revenue. Reports said that fight could generate a total of $400 million in revenue, which fueled speculation the two camps will consider staging a rematch later this year.

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