Bob Sheridan: “Floyd Mayweather’s fights are not memorable, not in terms of the great fights that we’ve seen over the years”

I recently was afforded the opportunity to speak to Hall of Fame boxing commentating legend, ‘The Colonel’ Bob Sheridan, to discuss this past weekends’ highly anticipated Mayweather vs. Pacquiao bout, the fight was five years in the making. Sheridan shares his views on the fight and talks about how the judges scored it. Bob also discusses Manny Pacquiao’s future and if he thinks Pacquiao is in decline. Additionally, Sheridan gives his thoughts on Floyd Mayweather’s next fight and what he thinks this fight meant historically. Here is what Bob Sheridan had to say.

Robert Brown: Floyd Mayweather emerged victorious in his long awaited fight with Manny Pacquiao. How did you see the fight, Colonel?

Bob Sheridan: I saw the fight pretty much the way the judges saw it. I might have had it a round more for Manny Pacquiao because around the middle rounds there were several even rounds where the judges gave all of those rounds to Floyd Mayweather, who was masterful in his defensive tactics.

I think the scoring was proper in the fight. I don’t think that because of the way that the fight came down and the way it was contested that there would be any interest in a rematch. In general, Floyd fought a usual what I would say, “a boring fight,” because that’s the way he fights. He’s very successful at what he does and that’s why he’s making the big bucks and has done so well.

Robert Brown: In the early rounds Manny hit Floyd with a couple of solid left hands but then Floyd decided to get on his bike and box. What did you make of the early rounds?

Bob Sheridan: Well Mayweather created the proper distance. I gave Mayweather the first three rounds and I gave Pacquiao the fourth round, but then Mayweather came right back and had a really good fifth round. Then the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth were fairly close rounds but I gave most of those to Mayweather

You could have given a couple of those early rounds to Pacquiao but it didn’t make any difference because Floyd had the thing down to a science where he kept him out at the end of his jab. The couple of times that Pacquiao was able to penetrate it, he had some nice rounds. All in all, I think the judges had it right on the money.

Robert Brown: Do you think the jab was what kept Manny at bay and stopped him from being able come in and attack like he usually does?

Bob Sheridan: I don’t think Manny showed any indications that he wasn’t going to attack, he just wasn’t able to because Floyd kept him at bay with that jab and his occasional right hand power shots that caught Manny. He just outboxed Pacquiao and you can’t take that away from him.

In terms of fights of the century, that might not even be the fight of the year — in fact it won’t be, there will be much more exciting fights before this year is over in boxing. I have already seen a couple of really good fights that would surpass that. Very rarely do big fights live up to the hype and no fight was hyped more than this one — it took six years to put together and it was a magnanimous thing for boxing, for the state of Nevada, for the city of Las Vegas. They really had all of the celebrities out in full force.

People who aren’t usually boxing fans had tremendous interest in this. Mainstream networks covered the fight. Floyd Mayweather and his company did a great job in promotions leading up to this fight for five or six years and now he can just coast off into the sunset.

Floyd will probably fight Amir Khan in the fall, he’s gonna fight again in September then he say he’s going to retire. He’ll probably retire after that for six months or so, then he will come out of retirement when they have the new arena built here in Las Vegas, which should be ready about this time next year. We’ll see if he stays retired or if he goes for the 50-0, provided he wins the 49th fight. That’s his fight plan and game plan, I’m sure.

Robert Brown: What do you think is next for Manny Pacquiao?

Bob Sheridan: I don’t know, we’ll have to wait. I haven’t had any contact with Top Rank since the fight, so I don’t know. Manny might want to go down to 140lbs, there’s some really good fights there and Top Rank has three or four of the guys at 140lbs, including Terence Crawford. Crawford is a really good fighter and that might make for a really good match, to see how Crawford could do against Manny Pacquiao. It would be a good title fight, something that people would want to see.

Manny has only won two of his last five fights now, so he’s definitely on the decline. When you saw Manny against Floyd Mayweather — four or five years ago he would have put more pressure on Floyd, but Floyd still would have done exactly what he did in this fight.

Floyd, to me, I can’t say that he’s lost much. People say that he’s slowed down just a bit, and I think the obvious thing was both his feet and his hands in that fight with Pacquiao, that he had the hand speed and foot speed over Pacquiao. I don’t agree with what people are saying.

Robert Brown: Is another fight with Juan Manuel Marquez a possibility?

Bob Sheridan: I wouldn’t think so. I don’t think a Marquez fight with Pacquiao now would have any draw at all. I think Pacquiao becomes the opponent for maybe a Terence Crawford or whoever wins the fight between Jessie Vargas and Timothy Bradley. If Vargas wins that fight, that might be a good fight for Manny but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens — and that’s provided that Manny’s willing to go down and fight at 140lbs.

Robert Brown: In some of the later rounds, Floyd Mayweather Sr. was very angry with his son in the corner and desperately wanted Floyd to knock Pacquiao out. Why do you think that was?

Bob Sheridan: Because every little thing that Pacquiao would do would get the crowd buzzing and Mayweather Sr. knew that judges could be influenced but they weren’t influenced by it and they judged the fight properly. That’s why he got so excited, he was afraid that Floyd wouldn’t get some of those close rounds and as it worked out, he got all of those rounds, in spite that Manny had some flurries in there.

Robert Brown: Was it sad for you to see the crowd have a sinister reaction towards Floyd at the end of the fight, despite all of his accomplishments?

Bob Sheridan: Well as a sportsman, I understand, but you have to understand the type of crowd that was there. That wasn’t your typical boxing crowd; that was a bunch of millionaires and people who wanted to be part of an event that was historic. There were very few in that 18,000 seat arena that were the true hardcore boxing fans because the true hardcore boxing fans couldn’t afford to go to that fight.

That’s the reaction because Pacquiao is such a popular guy and they were disappointed and Mayweather is not a likable guys, he’s kind of a thug in a lot of ways, so that was the crowd reaction. I never like to see my sport have people dissatisfied with it but people paid a lot of money to see what they thought was gonna be an unbelievable fight and the fight didn’t live up to the hype.

Robert Brown: How do you think people will perceive this fight five or ten years down the road?

Bob Sheridan: Nobody is going to be talking about this fight as one of the great fights. You wouldn’t compare it to Hagler vs. Hearns, it was a typical Floyd Mayweather fight and by and large, Mayweather is kind of a boring guy to watch, his fights are not memorable, not in terms of the great fights that we’ve seen over the years. This will be just another fight to say, “Well he did beat Pacquiao, and he did Canelo Alvarez, so he beat the best guys that were around during his career.” That’s how he will be remembered.