The return of Floyd Mayweather Jr could not have been more impressive, but while few doubted he was the world’s best boxer when he retired last year, now he has a point to prove.

There were no signs of ring rust in Mayweather’s one-sided victory over Juan Manuel Márquez in Las Vegas in their welterweight bout in the early hours of yesterday, but while the Mexican is rightly proclaimed as one of the world’s best, he did not have the size, speed or style to trouble Mayweather. The debate is now about whether Mayweather, who had been out of the ring since beating Ricky Hatton in 2007, or Manny Pacquiao is truly the sport’s top dog.

While few thought that Márquez would beat Mayweather, the manner of the American’s victory was stunning. The time away has done nothing to blunt his skills: can there have been a boxer in history as confident in his dominance of time and space in the ring? His hand-speed in attack and ability to roll himself into a defensive ball by turning his shoulder make him seemingly impossible to face.

There were fears before the bout that Márquez, 36, would simply be too small. Pacquiao has made an extraordinary move up the weight divisions, but that is far from the norm. As a natural counter-puncher, Márquez, who spent most of his career as a featherweight, was doubly handicapped by his reach disadvantage. Without any pressure from the Mexican, Mayweather, 32, who extended his unbeaten record to 40 bouts, was able to pick his distance and his pace as he speared Márquez with shots.

Márquez’s best moment came in the second round, when he landed an overhand right. Mayweather’s response was two hard left hooks, the second of which bowled Márquez over on his back. After that, Mayweather was completely dominant.

One judge gave Márquez two rounds, one gave him a round, but those must have been pity votes. Márquez did not appear to win even a minute of a round.

“I got the cobwebs off of me and I think [in] the next fight I will be a lot sharper,” Mayweather said. “I don’t rate this as one of my best fights. I think I could have done a lot better. I have been off for a couple of years. I just want to push myself to the limit. Even when I fought Ricky Hatton, I thought I could have done better. I want to be perfect.

“Márquez is tough as hell. Tough, tough, tough. I hit him with some shots and I thought they were going to finish him, but he kept pushing back. That is the Mexican warrior heart in him.”

The bout the world wants to see is still some way off. Pacquiao has a superfight of his own, against Miguel Cotto in the same Las Vegas ring on November 14. That would put any possible Mayweather-Pacquiao bout back to next spring at the earliest. The likely scenario is that Mayweather will instead face Shane Mosley, 38.

It is a match that makes sense because Mosley, as with Mayweather and Márquez, is promoted by Golden Boy. Mosley, shadowed by Bernard Hopkins, confronted Mayweather in the ring during a television interview to demand a bout. It was an incident that had all the hallmarks of staged confrontations from the WWE wrestling circuit, where Mayweather spent some of his retirement.

Certainly Mosley, a natural welterweight who spent much of his recent career at light-middleweight, would represent a bigger physical challenge. He seemed on the slide when he lost to Cotto in 2007, but re-established his reputation by beating Antonio Margarito in January, a bout that became notorious after Margarito’s trainer was caught trying to apply a plaster of paris substance to the boxer’s handwraps.

“People say Pacquiao is number one,” Mayweather said. “I don’t have to rate myself [because] I know what I can do. Pound-for-pound is an opinion. I was a professional for 11 years, and I was a world champion for ten years. I went away for two years, came back, I fought the number two fighter. I didn’t rate him, [the press] did. Everybody knows I don’t have to duck and dodge anyone.”

Mayweather and Márquez were not the only historic figures on the Las Vegas bill. Chris John, 30, from Indonesia, extended his unbeaten record to a remarkable 45 bouts with a unanimous points decision over Rocky Juarez, of the United States. John, who beat Márquez in 2006, was making his twelfth defence of the WBA featherweight title.

The career of Matt Skelton, the former British, Commonwealth and European champion, could be over after he retired with an injured hand at the end of the eighth round in his European Union heavyweight title bout against Francesco Pianeta, in Neubrandenburg, Germany.