In the weeks leading up to the fight, Manny Pacquiao claimed: “God will deliver him to me.”

He failed to add that his opponent would arrive throwing jabs, right hands and counter right hands so crisp that if bagged and sold in supermarkets, they’d put Golden Wonder out of business.

On May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Floyd Mayweather put on a boxing clinic against the Filipino that made the fight of the century seem at times more like a hard sparring session.

He controlled the pace, tempo, distance and action throughout, leaving Pacquiao out of ideas, reduced in periods to standing off him throwing single shots in hope more than expectation.

It was a crushingly disappointing performance from the Filipino eight-weight world champion, who was second best in every department, including speed.

Mayweather’s ability to repeatedly find the target with right hand leads only confirmed that Pacman is a shadow of the irresistible force he was five or six years ago, when he rolled over opponents one after the other.

Inexplicably, afterwards, there were those who claimed the fight was close, citing the fact that Pacquiao had been more aggressive.

This assertion is contradicted by the Compubox stats, revealing that Mayweather threw 435 punches to Pacquiao’s 429, with 148 of Mayweather’s punches landing to Pacquiao’s 81.

More, a distinction has to be made between aggression and pressure and “effective” aggression and pressure.

Too, the emphasis on aggression in scoring a fighter’s performance favourably places counter punchers such as Mayweather at an unfair disadvantage in every fight, as well as reducing the art of counter punching to a lesser status in a fighter’s armoury.

This is not a view that can be taken seriously. Ring generalship describes the extent to which a fighter controls the ring and, with it, the fight.

In this department alone Mayweather was Napoleon to Pacquiao’s Percival in the way he was able to maneouvre him around the ring, decide where and when most of the exchanges took place and continually find space to thwart the Filipino’s efforts at cutting off the ring.

Any idea that Pac’s southpaw style would add an extra element of awkward for Mayweather was disabused from the opening bell.

The pound-for-pound champion looked more comfortable than he did in his previous two fights against Marcus Maidana, scoring regularly with the jab while avoiding his opponent’s vaunted left hand by continually stepping to his own left.

Freddie Roach has operated at the elite level for two decades and it’s unlikely the gameplan he came up with for a fighter he will have undoubtedly studied over many years in anticipation of this very occasion was as poor as Pacquiao’s performance suggested.

It’s more likely the case that Pacquiao, for whatever reason, was unable to execute the gameplan.

Perhaps this was due to the shoulder injury he revealed after the fight or maybe it’s the case that his previous three victories on the bounce against less than devastating opposition had merely covered up the extent of his decline.

But having said that, the sight of Roach taking a selfie as he accompanied Pacquiao to the ring was inexplicable.

The biggest fight of his career would, you’d think, imbue him and his team with even more focus than usual. Taking a selfie suggested someone who was enjoying the occasion when his mind should have been cleared of every other consideration apart from the fight.

The deserved unanimous decision in Mayweather’s favour (I gave Pacquiao three rounds) was not destined to be the end of the matter.

Revealing that he’d been labouring with a shoulder injury, sustained in training a few weeks prior, struck a discordant note and may have done his reputation harm.

Pacquiao should have taken the high road and accepted his defeat like the champion he is. Every fighter at championship level fights injured at some point or other in their career — the very nature of boxing makes it inevitable — but as with David Haye claiming a broken toe affected his performance against Wladimir Klitschko, Pacquiao and his team only made things worse.

That said, talk of suspension and even perjury charges are off the scale, as is the lawsuit that’s reportedly been filed by two fans claiming Pacquiao defrauded fans in failing to disclose his shoulder injury as he was supposed to per the rules set out by the Nevada Athletic Commission.

Give the guy a break. If his record over the past decade counts for something, he surely deserves to be cut some slack.
If not, if Pacquiao is to face exemplary punishment for failing to disclose an injury that he and Roach claim occurred two weeks prior to the fight, then boxing is brought into disrepute.

As for who will share a ring with Mayweather in September, and with it the privilege of being 49th opponent and the last to face him of his massive six-fight Showtime deal, Amir Khan’s name has dominated every other.

Khan claims he’s been assured by the Mayweather camp he’s next in line. Based on marketability, the Bolton fighter has an argument.

However, if the criterion is based on record and belts then a more compelling case can be made for Kell Brook, the current IBF welterweight champion.

Brook remains undefeated and holds the only belt that doesn’t reside in the Mayweather mansion.

Unifying the belts while taking Brook’s “0” would mark a fitting end to an illustrious career. That is if his next fight is to be the last.

Is Mayweather the best ever? If not he’s definitely up there. As someone put it on social media: “Mayweather’s playing chess while everyone else is playing chequers.”

NEXT IN LINE? Amir Khan has been clamouring to fight Mayweather for nearly two years and may get his chance in September