whereas Cotta gave Mayweather his hardest test to date. Mayweather clearly won tonight, but he didn't blow Cotta away. Cotta showed himself to be a very good fighter who can't quite compete with the greats.

I don't think anyone can say for sure that Pacquaio would beat Mayweather, or vice versa. What is clear is that those two are in the same class, above everyone else. Age will catch up with both of them, probably not exactly at the same time. At their peak though, they were both great, and anyone saying otherwise is probably a biased fan of one of them.