LAS VEGAS ? It wasn?t easy money for Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night.
Perhaps it was merely a coincidence, or perhaps the man who calls himself ?Money? Mayweather had a premonition about what was awaiting him at the MGM Grand Garden Arena when he chose accompanied on his entrance by a circus complete with a ringmaster and juggling act ? because before the night was out, he would have to become a lion tamer to survive the boldly inartistic assault of Marcos Maidana.
Several days before they met to unify the WBC and WBA welterweight titles, Maidana ended what had begun as an ode to Floyd with a biting remark: ?I don?t give a bleep about him.? Saturday night, he made that obvious.
From the opening bell, Maidana chose to defend his WBA portion of the 147-pound title by jamming Mayweather against the ropes and assaulting him. He threw 100 punches in the first round alone, trapping the WBC champion and then nailing him with wild overhand rights to the head while digging hard body shots to his ribs, hips ? and at least four times in the course of the night, to areas clearly south of that.
Mayweather likes to box, and he may be the best in the world at, it but Maidana wanted him to fight. And Maidana forced him to do so with the voraciousness of a boll weevil in the first half of their brutally inelegant confrontation. Time and again, he trapped Mayweather along the ropes and penetrated what had previously been an almost impregnable defense, cutting Mayweather for the first time in Money?s career when the two inadvertently clashed heads in the fourth round.
Mayweather seemed momentarily horrified at the sight of his own blood, repeatedly wiping at it as the cut leaked plasma into his right eye. Soon after his nose was bleeding, as well. None of that seemed to sate Maidana?s appetite for mayhem.
What finally did were the kind of mid-course corrections only great fighters can make in the middle of an assault and battery. By the midpoint of what would turn out to be his second consecutive majority decision victory, Mayweather began to land crisp lead rights, counter rights over what had become a lazy Maidana jab and, most importantly, asserted himself in the center of the ring.
It was there that Mayweather found safe harbor, a place where his hand-speed advantage and agility not only blunted Maidana?s furious but simplistic attack, but allowed him to dictate the terms of the engagement, which early on had been decided by Maidana. The result of that reversal was a majority decision lustily booed by a goodly number of the 16,268 who came to the arena expecting another coronation and nearly witnessed a decapitation.
?He put pressure on me, and that?s when I decided to fight differently,? Mayweather (46-0, 26 KO) said. ?I stood there and fought him. He?s a good fighter; I take nothing away from him.?
There was no way he could have after Maidana landed more punches on him than any of his previous 45 opponents. Maidana threw more than twice as many punches as Mayweather (858-426) but Mayweather was far more accurate ? landing 54 percent (230 landed blows) according to Compubox statistics, while Maidana had a connect rate of only 26 percent (221). That led judge Burt Clements to see Mayweather a 117-11 winner, while judge Dave Moretti had it 116-112 and Michael Pernick called it a draw, 114-114. The Herald had Mayweather winning 115-114 with one round even.
Neither Mayweather?s second half rally nor those cards convinced Maidana that he had not pulled off the upset of the year. Just outside the blast furnace the ring had become, his wild-eyed and raucous Argentine supporters agreed with him, whistling and booing loudly until Mayweather left the ring.
?I definitely think I won,? Maidana said through a translator. ?Floyd did not fight like a man like I expected him to do. I had to change the gloves (after Mayweather protested the original gloves Maidana intended to wear and threatened to call the fight off) and I still gave him a great fight. He did dominate some rounds, but the majority I dominated.?
Certainly Maidana dominated the early rounds with a ceaseless body attack that had little regarded for boxing?s recognized DMZ. He hit Mayweather low on the hips a number of times and also hit him behind the head ? an approach ignored by referee Tony Weeks, who also did nothing to stop Mayweather from pushing Maidana?s head down and thrusting his elbows under his chin. Even for the referee, this became a roaring circus act.
?Finally I was in a competitive fight,? said Mayweather. ?He had an awkward style, but a true champion can make adjustments to anything. That (cut over his right eye) came from a head-butt and I couldn?t see for two rounds after the head-butt, but that?s what champions do ? they survive and they adjust. True champions adjust to anything.?
That he had to adjust stunned many who had made him a heavy favorite, but Mayweather clearly did in the second half of the fight ? blunting Maidana?s body attack along the ropes with superior defense and escape-ability, and finding ways to stay more in the middle of the ring, where his speed advantage and defensive skills allowed him to carry the action.
Maidana, who put on nearly 20 pounds in the 36 hours between the weigh-in and the first bell, also seemed to tire after Mayweather began to land more heavily with stinging lead rights and counters that caught Maidana cleanly. Still, the fight was a close encounter of the painful kind for Mayweather, close enough that when Maidana (35-4, 31 KO) was asked if he wanted a rematch, he replied cockily: ?I have to give him the rematch because I won the fight. I?m not scared of him. Why not give him a rematch??
When Mayweather arrived at the post-fight press conference, he was initially respectful of Maidana?s competitiveness, but when he closed his praise of him by saying, ?Next time, just don?t hit me (below the belt) so much,? Maidana showed his feistiness had not dissipated.
?Next time let me use my gloves,? Maidana snapped. ?Give me a (bleeping) rematch.?
Mayweather was noncommittal when asked about that possibility while still in the ring, but he now looked at Maidana, sitting next to him at the podium, and replied menacingly: ?We can take it back down there right now if you want. Put the ring back up. . . . It?s not a problem. If he feels he won, we can do it again in September.?
When Mayweather suggested that, it was the only time he didn?t get a fight from Maidana all night.
