On Wednesday afternoon, April 30th, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, WBC Welterweight Champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and WBA 147 pound title holder Marcos “El Chino” Maidana addressed dozens of media members who congregated for the final press conference in support of the big May 3rd unification bout.
The overwhelming sentiment surrounding the highly anticipated event could have been summed up with a snap shot of the two competing fighters.
Maidana, whose biggest payday will be earned in the ring this Saturday night, resembled a sweaty palmed kid who just stepped out of his first limousine ride and pulled out his ticket to this year’s senior prom.
Despite looking like this year’s prom king, the confident Argentine isn’t planning on pinning Mayweather with a corsage this Saturday night.
“I want to thank my family and my team…and that’s about it,” stated Marcos Maidana. “because I won this with my effort. No one has given anything to me. I earned this opportunity myself.” “I know this is a very difficult fight, and I know that Mayweather is an excellent fighter. But like ‘La Raza’ says, ‘I don’t give a f**k about him’.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr., on the other hand, was dressed in casual attire; as if he had seen the final act of this play many, many times before.
“So we’re still wondering who’s gonna solve the May-Vinci code,” stated the 37 year old pound for pound king. “Everybody’s gameplan is to come straight ahead. Apply pressure. Hit him on the leg, hit him on the hip…hit him with a low blow, head-butt him.” “I still find a way to win.”
“They say, ‘well this guy right here is super fast’…I still find a way to win. ‘This guy has a good left hook, good right hand, this guy goes to the body good’…I still find a way to win. ‘This guy has good defense, this guy has the best jab’…I still find a way to win.”
“Saturday…I’ll find a way to win.”
The May 3rd unification bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, will mark Mayweather’s 23rd championship appearance and Maidana’s sixth career major title fight.
THE MOMENT: Mayweather vs. Maidana,” is a 12-round world championship unification bout for Mayweather and Maidana’s respective 147-pound titles. This is the third fight of Mayweather’s lucrative multi-fight deal with Showtime Networks Inc. THE MOMENT is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and AT&T. In the co-main event, Amir Khan faces Luis Collazo in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBC silver welterweight world title.
The pay-per-view undercard also features a 10-round junior welterweight fight between Adrien Broner and Carlos Molina as well as a 10-round super middleweight bout featuring J’Leon Love vs. Marco Antonio Periban.
The event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) will be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).
