Marcos Maidana did everything the way he was supposed to. From the first bell, he stalked Floyd Mayweather Jr. like a shadow, then charged him and threw his signature overhand right punch as if to club the best fighter on the planet into submission. He jabbed some, too. He hooked to the body. He never stopped.
Even when he couldn’t hit Mayweather, he found a way, tackling him through the ring ropes deep in the fight and hitting him while both fell to the canvas. Before the 12th and final round, Maidana refused to sit on his stool, standing and waiting to charge the ring for one last chance to club Mayweather out.
The opening never came. In arguably the toughest fight of his career, Mayweather, now 37, still undefeated and one of the highest-grossing athletes in sports, did what he always does: elude and expose.
In the early rounds, despite getting hammered on the ropes with flurries of awkward haymakers and suffering a cut from an accidental butt that he claimed limited his vision for two rounds, Mayweather was able to turn the fight around. As boxing’s Euclid, Mayweather found the distance to establish his rhythm, countered with cleaner, crisper punches and won the rounds.
One judge scored the fight nine rounds to three. One judge had it eight rounds to four. Another judge had it a draw, the first draw Mayweather’s career. Despite a rough night and old age, Mayweather maintained his speed, endurance, agility and intelligence.
“I always make the adjustments,” Mayweather said after the fight. “That’s the difference between me and every other fighter.”
At the post-fight press conference, Maidana clamored for a rematch.
“He never hurt me with a punch,” Maidana said. “He wasn’t even that tough.”
Growing up on a ranch in a remote part of Argentina known for its cattle and violence, Maidana was an underdog coming into the fight. Unlike Mayweather, who boxed in the Olympics as an amateur and was schooled by a family of slick, professional fighters, Maidana learned his craft in street fights. After losing early fights, his pugilistic style was never refined, only enhanced by trainer Robert Garcia.
Over the past two years, Maidana has represented the journeyman’s dream. He scored an upset knockout of Josesito Lopez. He then went on to score an upset decision of Adrien Broner. He seemed to be on his way to making the impossible come true in the first round against Mayweather, knocking him off balance with a thudding overhand right. Througout the next few rounds, Maidana pressed the attack.
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“I can’t see,” he said, sitting on his stool after the round, and waiting as his cutman, the veteran Rafael Garcia, worked to close it.
In the middle rounds, the blood free from his right eye, Mayweather found his composure, languishing on the ropes while Maidana’s bum rushes and blows either glanced off or sailed through the air, then countered with upper cuts, check hooks and right hand leads. In total, Maidana threw more than 800 punches in the fight, doubling Mayweather’s output. Only a quarter of those punches managed to land somewhere on Mayweather’s body, according to Compubox statistics. Maidana’s war of attrition was not enough.
After the fight, Maidana complained Mayweather’s camp forced him to use bigger gloves, with more padding, giving Mayweather an unfair advantage. The night before the fight, the Nevada State Athletic Commission rejected a customized pair of Everlast gloves Maidana wanted to use, claiming there wasn’t enough padding in the knuckle area. Maidana’s camp offered a second pair of Everlast gloves, which the Commission approved, but Mayweather still rejected. A resolution to the glove dispute was settled between the camps somewhat secretly before the fight, and it’s still unclear what weight gloves Maidana used. Efforts to reach representatives from both camps late Saturday night and early Sunday morning were unsuccessful.
“If I had my gloves, I would’ve knocked him out,” Maidana said after the fight.
Despite the loss on paper and relinquishing his welterweight title, Maidana’s ability to expose a vulnerable side of Mayweather and curry support among fans amounted to a partial victory.
Meanwhile, the Mayweather show goes on. His next fight has been scheduled for September, and the variety of opponents he could face were lingering around Las Vegas on Saturday night making their cases. Will it be the speedy Amir Khan? Or the younger Sean Porter or Keith Thurman? Or, and as they both get older, a legacy-cementing showdown with Manny Pacquiao?
A tireless showman, Mayweather understands the value of surprise. Late Saturday, he was ready to mix-it up with Maidana again.
“We can take it back down there right now if you want,” Mayweather said. “Put the ring back up.”
