LAS VEGAS, USA – To many fans of Manny Pacquiao, it seemed that the Filipino boxer threw more punches than his opponent Floyd Mayweather Jr, but the statistics from Compubox showed otherwise.

Mayweather won his bout against Pacquiao on Saturday, May 2 (May 3 in Manila), but Pacquiao fans felt that their pick was much more aggressive and that Mayweather “ran away” a lot.

Statistics told a different story.

According to the final fight stats from Compubox, the judges’ unanimous decision to award the fight to Mayweather was right.

Mayweather was seen to have thrown 435 total punches, more than Pacquiao’s 429. Of those numbers, Mayweather landed 148, while Pacquiao only landed 81 – giving him a connect percentage of 19% compared to Mayweather’s 34%.

Statistics also show Mayweather landed 67 of his 257 jabs, a 25% connect percentage, compared to Pacquiao landing 18 of 193, giving him only a 9% connect percentage.

In power punches, Mayweather also beat Pacquiao. While Pacquiao threw 236, he only landed 63, giving him a 27% connect percentage. Mayweather landed 48% of his power punches – 81 out of 168.

CompuBox is a computerized scoring system used in boxing fights to count and categorize punches. It works via two operators; in a fight, two operators are in charge of the system, one operator per fighter. 

Each operator has 4 keys that they hit every time their fighter connects a jab, misses a jab, connects a power punch, and misses a power punch. Of course, power punches – punches that are a hook, an uppercut or a cross, basically anything aside from a jab – are scored more.

Not all wins however are supported by statistics. When Juan Manuel Marquez lost to Pacquiao in the judges’ scorecards in 2008 via split decision, the CompuBox numbers showed that Marquez actually landed more jabs and power punches. (READ: Crowd silent after fight, Pacquiao fans down)

He landed 172 total punches out of 511 thrown compared to Pacquiao (157/619), even if the latter threw more punches in total – showing that scoring boxing is not a precise practice. – Rappler.com