Mayweather continues unbeaten run with points win against Maidana

For the highly anticipated rematch, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (47-0) remained unbeaten by winning a unanimous decision over Marcos Maidana (35-5). Maidana was quicker to the draw the previous fight, applying better pressure and keeping Mayweather against the ropes. For Saturday night’s match up at the MGM Grand, the rounds belonged to Floyd.

Mayweather started the fight in defensive mode, using a lot of lateral movement to keep the distance between him and Chino. Mayweather clearly setting the tempo and keeping the fight at the center of the ring, made it hard for Maidana to connect or create any exchanges. Maidana rocked Mayweather with a right hand in round three, with the bell to end the round only seconds later.

When Maidana was allowed to fight on the inside, Mayweather did more holding than we usually see from the 37 year old fighter. Numerous times throughout the fight referee Kenny Bayless stepped in to separate, with Mayweather to put his jab right back to work. Mayweather getting comfortable with holding his opponent and pushing him down, forced his glove into the face of Maidana, and immediately sprung up, yelling out “He bit me”! With round eight getting put into a halt for the bite controversy, Mayweather’s corner examine the glove and Mayweather trying to plead that his hand is hurt. Slow motion cam shows Maidana’s face clearly smothered by Mayweather’s glove, coming in close contact with Maidana’s mouthpiece. It isn’t until after the fight, even with no obvious damage, Mayweather stated that his fingers went numb. Maidana never really admitting that he bit Mayweather, just answers, “maybe he forced his thumb into my mouthpiece.”

Mayweather continued to control the tempo of the fight remaining. His counter punches were precise, and his right hand landed almost every time he threw it over Maidana’s lazy jab. Round twelve, forced Maidana to pull out everything he could, although it was hard for him to catch the running Mayweather. For those who feel Mayweather never runs, just incredibly defensive, ShoStats confirmed Mayweather only landed one punch in the twelfth round. With his power punches landing at 58%, Mayweather clearly had more precision, although Chino did a good job being more the aggressor. Maidana’s punch output was significantly lower as compared to the first fight.

Mayweather moves on to 47-0, and says his team will take close consideration of who his next opponent will be. With Mayweather allegedly only fighting two more times before he finishes his career, many wonder if Amir Khan will ever get the chance to hit the “Mayweather Lotto”.

Other possible match ups could be Danny Garcia and of course the mega match up with Manny Pacquiao. When asked about a possible match up with Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather stated “Pacquiao needs to get through what’s in front of him first, then maybe we can look at something”. Pacquiao is to face Chris Algieri in November. Mayweather always wants to give his fans what they want, and while the rematch with Maidana wasn’t the most entertaining, hopefully Mayweather will close out his career with a bang.

– Leann Perez / @LeannPerez_

– Contributor for www.BehindtheGloves.com