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Kevin Paul Dupont

Mayweather-Pacquiao turned into a real dud of a fight

Floyd Mayweather’s best statement Saturday night vs. Manny Pacquiao (right) was that his legs are still fit for flight.John Gurzinski/AFP/Getty Images

LAS VEGAS — Boxing, stripped bare of the bustle of its sideshows and the cacophony of its carnival barkers, is the sport of body language. He who punches the smartest and hardest and bravest is judged the most articulate, departing the ring with a bejeweled belt corseted around his midsection and a pile of cash to ease his pain.

Floyd Mayweather left the MGM Grand Garden Arena with all of that Saturday night after winning a 12-round unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao in what turned into a dud of a welterweight championship. And ultimately it was Pacquiao, hindered by an old shoulder injury that flared up in the early rounds, who spoke loudest, at one point banging his own padded fists together in frustration in the closing seconds of the 11th round.

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Fed up with being unable to quarry the ever-slippery Mayweather — his fame and fortune constructed on the fine art of defensive dodgery — Pacquiao conveyed biting editorial comment when he smashed those gloves. Was he fighting Mayweather or was he fighting but a shadow? Were they up there to box, bring the inside of the ring to a rolling boil on the richest night in the sport’s history, or were they merely a couple of aging, glorified sock puppets prancing around as a pre-audition for “Dancing with the Stars”?

The gesture, the body language, was clearly meant to convey, “C’mon, let’s fight!’’

It was the best punch Pacquiao landed across 12 rounds, a scoring shot to his opponent’s expansive ego. Surprised and indignant, Mayweather retaliated not by engaging in the call to battle, but by mimicking the Filipino legend. Called out, Mayweather’s only response was to validate Pacquiao’s unspoken words, then shake his head as he departed for his corner at the bell.

“I thought I won the fight,’’ Pacquiao said much later, the post-bout interviews not commencing until about 2½ hours after the fight began (11:58 p.m. start, ET). “I hurt him many times . . . but he didn’t hurt me.’’

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Truth be told, neither opponent looked banged-up after a night in which neither of them hit the floor, suffered a nick of any note, or forced the ref even to consider one or both could be staggered or dinged. While true Pacquiao was most often the aggressor, most of that meant he was only chasing Mayweather, whose best statement over the 36 minutes was that his legs are still fueled and fit for flight. While the great Muhammad Ali could float like a butterfly on massive, agile legs, Mayweather springs around on his pins like a Pixar animated character. Time and again, the charging Pacquiao appeared about to corral Mayweather, only to be left to swing at air or chase, chase, and chase again.

“Other fighters get engaged in fighting toe-to-toe with him,’’ Mayweather said in a salient moment amid some of his usual post-bout preening. “That’s what he wants.’’

It was not anywhere Mayweather was willing to go. His father, Floyd Sr., on Thursday predicted he would win by knockout. It was more like stretchout. When he wasn’t ducking or gyrating out of Pacquiao’s charges, Mayweather most often was using his slightly longer reach to keep his opponent from closing space, inflicting damage. Those money-in-the-bank, lightning-quick Pacquiao combinations were rendered illegal tender.

By night’s end, Mayweather indeed landed more punches overall (148-81), but his edge on power punches was considerably smaller (81-63). Had Pacquiao hurt him more, or more often? Perhaps. No way of telling. In a fight, it’s those moments when one boxer is rubber-legged or whose stare goes blank that most excite the crowd. None of that happened.

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On a night boxing stood ready to woo millions to the sweet science, the so-called “Fight of the Century’’ turned into an undercard polished up with lipstick and spritzed with cheap perfume. Tom Brady raced out of the Kentucky Derby to bear witness? He might have been wiser to audible at the finish line. He would have witnessed more contact at the edge of the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs.

Concerned the way the night was going as the rounds ticked by, Floyd Mayweather Sr., who trains his son, implored L’il Floyd between rounds to be more aggressive. “Pick it up!’’ he said more than once. It was clear the decision would be in the judges’ hands. And by the 10th round, it was equally clear the younger Mayweather felt he merely had to walk the win over the finish line. Pacquiao, his shoulder impaired, was running out of power and his will to get close to Mayweather diminished.

“My dad was on my [rear],” acknowledged Mayweather, claiming that he, in fact, knew he had the win clinched. “[Pacquiao] was throwing punches, and the crowd was screaming, so [Floyd Sr.] felt it was extremely close. But judges don’t go by punches thrown, judges go by shots landed. I knew in my heart I was beating him easily.’’

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Earlier, before his shoulder went bad, Pacquiao did put in two of his best pops of the night, connecting with a left with 1:25 to go in the fourth, then a right with 0:52 remaining.

“Yeah, he hit me with a solid shot there,’’ said Mayweather, noting that he hadn’t fought since September while Pacquiao had a fight in November. “So he was sharper. I get hit with a shot and, damn, it wakes you up.’’

It could have been that scoring right hand, however, that aggravated a right shoulder injury — an injury that had Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, saying later that he wanted his fighter to have a shot for before the bout. Hours after the match, a member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the body charged with overseeing/approving such medication, said the shot was denied, in part, because the request came only about 90 minutes before the fight’s scheduled start.

Further, said NSAC chairman Francisco Aguilar, no formal disclosure of Pacquiao’s injury was made at Friday’s weigh-in.

Pacquiao was not seen to favor the shoulder overtly through the 12 rounds. He referenced the injury a few times during the post-bout presser, but stuck by his original statement, “I don’t want to make alibis . . . it’s good . . . I went the 12 rounds.’’

Mayweather, not surprisingly, acted mildly annoyed when questioned about the potential effect of Pacquiao’s injuries. All fighters deal with injuries, he said, noting he had injuries on both arms and both hands.

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“The thing is,’’ he added, with his career record now 48-0, “I always find a way to win.’’

As the local time inched past midnight, Mayweather also said he intends to fight only once more later this year and likely will retire, though added that he is “only human’’ and thus also a “contradiction.’’

At 48-0 Mayweather planned his retirement, but who knows? If he wins his last bout, then he’ll be 49-0, tying the record held by the legendary Rocky Marciano, the heavyweight from Brockton, Mass., who died in a plane crash in 1969. Would Mayweather not want to surpass Marciano?

“I didn’t come into this boxing business, this boxing game, to try to outdo anyone,’’ he said. “I didn’t come in to break a guy’s record. If it was going to happen, it was going to happen.’’

After more double talk relating to his brand and business, Mayweather added, “But Rocky Marciano, he’s one of the champions, he’s one of the guys that paved the way for me to be where I’m at. Rocky Marciano, Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson. But you know it’s no different from Ali, you know, he called himself ‘The Greatest,’ and you know, this is my era and in my era, I’m TBE.’’

TBE as in “The Best Ever.’’

Mayweather also said he now will surrender many of his belts, professing not to be greedy and wanting to give younger fighters an opportunity to grow, succeed. He initially said he would surrender the belts on Monday, then backed off the date and said it could be a week or two. Again, the man is a contradiction.

With the final tally of the night’s gross earnings not yet known (suspected to be north of $400 million), it’s also possible Mayweather and Pacquiao will have a rematch. With approximately 84½ years left, there is still plenty of time on the calendar for “Fight of the Century Redux.”

One could argue that one look at Mayweather-Pacquiao was enough for the next five centuries or more. But in the fight game, where body language is so telling, the universal language remains money.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.