Floyd Mayweather, ably assisted by referee Kenny Bayless, kept his unbeaten streak alive by decisioning Marcos Maidana over 12 one-sided rounds?
?He held me even more than my wife.??Former light heavyweight champion Bob Foster
Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Floyd ?Money? Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs), ably assisted by referee Kenny Bayless, kept his unbeaten streak alive by decisioning Marcos ?El Chino? Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs), over 12 one-sided rounds by scores of 115-112 and 116-111 twice.
Compared to their first fight, which was competitive and exciting, the rematch was neither. It was partly the fault of Maidana. He lacked urgency and failed to duplicate the blueprint that proved so effective four months earlier. Partly it was the fault of Mayweather, who devised a gameplan that was strategically sound but pugilistically inert.
Recognizing what Maidana was able to do in their first meeting, a crude but effective demonstration of how Mayweather might be beaten, this time Floyd stayed off the ropes and clinched every time El Chino tried to mount an offense. It not only brought the action to a halt. It made for a bad fight that the referee, who is no fan of infighting and perhaps biased, could have remedied with a point deduction or three.
Mayweather successfully kept out of range and his right hand, thrown over Maidana?s lazy left jab, is as accurate as ever, but he barely threw a combination and his legs are all but gone. Maidana won a couple rounds on our card, but when the final stats were tallied, he had landed 128 of 572 punches for 22% to Mayweather?s 166 of 326 for 51%.
The crowd at the MGM began booing early and the booing increased as the rounds progressed. One can praise Mayweather?s savvy, his ring IQ, his wealth, his willingness to do what he needed to do to win. This, however, was not a victory to savor; not a fight to watch a second time.
Perhaps the most interesting round of the fight was the eighth. It wasn?t that the action in this round was scintillating. That was another fight altogether. This was the round when Mayweather claimed Maidana, with a mouthpiece in his mouth, bit his hand, which was of course covered with a boxing glove, during one of their countless clinches.
?He bit my fingers so my hands was numb,? he said after the fight, ?my fingers was numb. After the eighth round my hand was numb. I really couldn?t use my left hand, but I got the victory the best way I know how. We was tangled up in the center of the ring, the referee was breaking us and he bit my left hand.?
While talking about the bite, with Mike Tyson sitting stone-faced ringside, Mayweather was wearing the wearisome TBE (The Best Ever) cap. If there was any doubt before tonight, there is no doubt any longer. Mayweather is not the best ever. He may not even be the best fighter fighting today. He needs to continue ducking Manny Pacquiao. He should avoid Keith Thurman like the plague. Even Amir Khan might pose problems which the 37-year-old Mayweather can no longer solve.
Two more fights, or at the most three more fights are all that remains of his career. It will end, as all glorious careers end, with a combination of gratitude and regret. But unless tonight was a total aberration, Mayweather isn?t going out with a bang. He will, of necessity, go out with a whimper.
