Why Mayweather-Pacquiao should still deliver despite fighters being past their prime

For five long, torturous years, the complaint about Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao was that they wouldn't fight each other.

Mayweather supporters blamed Pacquiao. Pacquiao supporters blamed Mayweather.

Each fighter said he was ready, and both got sick of answering questions about the other when they were fighting someone else.

But now that the fight is only five weeks away, the tune has changed: While there is widespread adulation that the mega-fight has finally been made, there are large numbers of people who complain that the fight can't possibly be what it would have been several years ago.

Mayweather is 38 and Pacquiao is 36, so neither is young by today's standards.

Looking at the men whose careers have ended who are generally considered the greatest ever – in no particular order, Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis – shows that they had their greatest bouts from their mid-to-late 20s.

Robinson won 173 fights in his legendary career and was 128-1-2 before he turned 30.

But his greatest stretch probably came from when he was nearly 22 in 1943 until he was 28, when he defeated Jake La Motta twice, Armstrong and Kid Gavilan in a six-year period that is, arguably, the most dominant run against elite opposition by any fighter ever.

Louis was at his peak from 22 to 28, when he bested Max Schmeling in a heavily hyped and important rematch, as well as James Braddock, Tony Galento and Billy Conn, among others.

Ali's biggest wins came after he turned 30. He beat Joe Frazier twice, Ken Norton twice and George Foreman after turning 30, but most experts would say that his peak came in his mid-20s.

He was not allowed to fight for more than three years from 1967 through 1970 when he was 25 until 28 and theoretically at the height of his skills. But in the two years before his ban, he was amazingly dominant in wins over Sonny Liston, Ernie Terrell, Floyd Patterson and Zora Folley.

Armstrong developed a bit later and didn't really become truly dominant until his late 20s. He stopped Petey Sarron on Oct. 29, 1937, to claim the featherweight title when he was nearly 28. He began to fade after his 31st birthday.

So by that standard, both Mayweather and Pacquiao are past their primes.

Mayweather's biggest wins came in 1998 against Genaro Hernandez, when he was 21; against Diego Corrales in 2001, when he was a month shy of his 24th birthday; in a rematch against Jose Luis Castillo in 2002, when he was nearly 26; and in 2009 against Juan Manuel Marquez, when he was 32.

Though he's perceived to have dropped off a bit since that point, he still has gone 7-0 since and none of his bouts have been in doubt.

Pacquiao's most significant victories came in 2001 against Lehlo Ledwaba, when he was 23; against Marco Antonio Barrera in 2003, when he was almost 25; against Erik Morales in 2006, when he was 28 and against Miguel Cotto in 2009, when he was 31.

So Mayweather's best run in his career came from when he was 21 until he was 32, an amazing 11-year streak of dominance. Pacquiao's most dominant stretch was from 2001 through 2009, an era in which he went 18-1-2 and won recognized championships at 122, 130, 135, 140 and 147.

His 2003 win over Barrera came when Barrera held the linear featherweight title, though no sanctioning body belts were at stake in the bout.

Both men, though, have shown remarkable longevity at the top. Mayweather has been far more consistent, routing virtually everyone he faced from the beginning of his career until only recently, when he had a few minor problems in fights against Cotto and Marcos Maidana.

And while he won all three of those fights going away, he was still bloodied and bruised a bit in them and marked up far more than normal.

Pacquiao won his first world title when he was 19 and competing as a flyweight. But he soon outgrew the division and lost when he was weight-drained and got knocked out in a title fight in 1999 against Medgoen Singsurat.

He joined forces with trainer Freddie Roach in 2001 and went on the remarkable run that saw him compete in seven weight classes with increasing competence.

Roach has been working on his game plan for Mayweather for more than five years and said he believes Mayweather would have had a far better chance to win had they fought in 2010 as had first been discussed than he will now.

"There's been a lot of small adjustments I've had to make [in my plan] from five years ago until now," Roach said. "I actually think that Floyd had a better chance to beat Manny five years ago than he does now. I think his legs are a little bit shot and he's slowed down quite a bit.

"I think we can take advantage of that. He says he wants to exchange more with other fighters to make the fights more fan friendly, but I think that's [expletive], because he doesn't care about the fans at all. He's had to change because his legs won't take him out of the way."

But if neither fighter is able to move as well now as he did five years ago, that means each will be more available to be hit, which figures to make the fight more exciting.

Mayweather has often been lauded for his ability to make an opponent miss while standing in the same spot, moving just his head and shoulders.

As a result, even though the men are widely regarded as the world's two best fighters, if there is slippage, it should make it a more offensive and less tactical fight.

Mayweather wouldn't bite when it was suggested the fight is being held too late.

"It could have happened a long time ago, but I guess right now is the correct timing," Mayweather said. "I think it's an unbelievable matchup. As far as the fans, I know the fans can't wait for this fight to happen. I think the timing is right and the timing is now."

The thing that made the first Ali-Frazier fight so big was the perfect timing. Ali had just ended his 43-month exile only five months earlier.

Ali entered the bout against Frazier on March 8, 1971, at 31-0 and 29 years old. Frazier was 27 years old and was 26-0.

But while their first fight was excellent, the best bout between them was unquestionably the third, the notable "Thrilla in Manila," which Ali won by 14th round stoppage in arguably the greatest fight of all time.

By that point, Ali was chugging inexorably toward his 34th birthday and no longer had the blazing hand speed or nifty feet that marked him in his youth.

Frazier was 31 and would fight only twice more after that bout.

Yet, the two men put on a match for the ages despite the fact they were clearly past their physical peaks.

Mayweather and Pacquiao may be indeed past their physical peaks, but boxing is so much about the mental side of the game, and both remain strong there.

Some people will complain just to complain.

Yes, it would have been better had the fight happened five years ago. That it's happening now, however, doesn't necessarily mean we've been robbed of a great fight.

History has proven many times that so-called past-their-prime boxers are still capable of putting on the fight of a lifetime.