LAS VEGAS ? Marcos Maidana has 12 rounds tonight to land a better percentage than his first fight against Floyd Mayweather, prove his near-miss loss four months ago wasn’t a fluke, and put the first mar on a perfect fighter’s record.
Mayweather, the Grand Rapids native unbeaten in almost 18 years as a professional, insists none of that will happen.
“He came out rugged and wild and I just kept my composure,” Mayweather said. “And when the time presented itself, and the opportunity presented itself, I took full advantage of it.”
Mayweather’s second-half dominance in the first fight led him to a majority-decision victory disputed by few on May 3 in a welterweight unification.
He puts all his titles on the line tonight ? World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council welterweight (147 pounds), as well as WBC super welterweight (154) ? in a scheduled 12 rounder at MGM Grand, same site as the first bout.
The first multi-weight title fight since Ray Leonard beat Donny Lalonde for the super middlewight and light heavyweight titles in 1988 will test which man can tweak his first game plan to make the second fight easier ? or, in Maidana’s case, perhaps produce a historic upset.
“I know how to make adjustments instantly, second-nature,” Mayweather said. “I’m capable of changing up.”
Maidana, 31, has heard questions about whether Mayweather, 37, is showing signs of age. The Argentine’s roughhousing was effective early in the first fight and kept Mayweather off his game.
“There have been fighters who allowed him to do his stuff and look sensational but I didn’t allow him to do that,” Maidana said. “So maybe that’s the question there, instead of his age.”
MLive.com previews Mayweather-Maidana II MLive.com’s David Mayo and Josh Slagter preview Floyd Mayweather’s rematch against Marcos Maidana, set for Saturday night at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The rematch came about after a rugged and foul-filled first fight, including a fourth-round accidental head butt that opened the worst cut of Mayweather’s career over his right eye.
Mayweather fought through that adversity and won 6-1, 6-1 and 5-2 on the official scorecards over the last seven rounds.
Maidana, whose energy fizzled as the fight progressed, weighed in at 146 pounds Friday, a half-pound lighter than the champion Friday. Maidana said he tried to get on weight earlier in this training camp than for the first fight, when he weighed 146 1/2 (to Mayweather’s 146), but entered the ring with a 165-148 weight advantage, according to Showtime’s unofficial fight-night scale.
He hopes better pre-fight weight management translates to better endurance.
“I think I did get tired in the first fight,” Maidana said. “I have to pace myself a little better and this time around I will be better.”
Floyd Mayweather: I can adjust, Marcos Maidana can’t Floyd Mayweather talks about the many ways he can beat a fighter, and how that will come in handy in his Sept. 13 rematch with Marcos Maidana. (Video by Josh Slagter | MLive.com) Mayweather faces his own questions after he fought much of the first bout off the ropes, a maneuver often used by aging fighters to save their legs.
“I think my legs looked good in the first fight. With a guy like that, that’s fighting extremely dirty, you have to really key in on a guy, and watch, and take my time,” Mayweather said.
Kenny Bayless will serve as referee tonight after Tony Weeks was third man in the ring for the first fight.
Mayweather’s camp has spent weeks planting the idea that Bayless has to watch the low blows by Maidana, while Garcia said he has every confidence the fight will be fairly officiated.
“He knows that’s the way we fight,” Garcia said of Maidana’s rugged style. “He knows the way Mayweather fights, too. Mayweather also pushes, also uses his elbows ? that’s not being dirty, that’s the way he fights. If Chino works his way into his opponent and throws punches from all angles, that’s the way he fights. Why would a ref prevent Chino to have a chance to win a fight?”
Sports books here not only have Mayweather as a solid favorite of about 7-1, but also strongly favored to win by decision after neither fighter was hurt the first time.
Maidana said he doesn’t believe a 12-round fight necessarily will go Mayweather’s way.
“The first fight was so close, why wouldn’t I be able to win a decision?” he said.
The answer, according to Floyd Mayweather Sr., who trains is son, rests in the information the pound-for-pound king’s camp gleaned from coping with Maidana’s pressure in the first fight.
“One thing about this, we’re definitely going to figure out a lot more things than we knew before about the fight,” Mayweather Sr. said. “We’ve got 12 rounds, man, to figure out a whole bunch of things.”
