As the pinnacle of an excellent weekend for boxing, Saturday saw the legend that is Floyd Mayweather claim his 47th straight victory in a row at the expense of Argentinian opponent, Marcos Maidana. In this, their second bout, Mayweather curried more favour with the judging panel than he did in their last fight in May, eventually winning a unanimous victory on points.
The reining champion had a bit of a shakey start that saw him on the ropes justa minute in, which Maidana took advantage of with a right to Mayweather’s head. Just when it looked as though he was going to let the second round go to Maidana too, the champ swiftly recovered with solid show towards the end of the round that evened out the points just before the bell.
Although there were questions in the build up to the fight surrounding Mayweather’s speed following on from a slightly sluggish performance in May, the 37 year old boxer was light on his feet in the opening rounds and showed glimpses of the boxing excellence we have come to expect from him.
There were, however, hints of an upset to Mayweather’s undefeated record when Maidana’s spirits rose with the chants of the crowd and he landed some outstanding shots to the champion’s body and head, leaving him bleeding at the mouth.
Mayweather recovered in the fifth as Maidana showed signs of tiring, which echoed the fight in May that saw his stamina fade. After this, Mayweather seemed to have found his feet and the end of the seventh round saw the challenger distractedly wandering to the wrong corner in a state of obvious confusion.
Although he put in a furious performance towards the end of the bout, Maidana was clearly on the back foot and Mayweather used the situation to his advantage and ended the fight victorious.
Aside from being an entertaining fight, Saturday’s bout was somewhat overshadowed by a bizarre claim that Marcos Maidana bit Mayweather’s left hand during one of the rounds. Although the Argentinian boxer refuted the claims,stating “I didn’t bite him. Maybe he put his glove in my mouth”, slow motion footage does look somewhat incriminating.
Afterwards, Mayweather was recorded as saying he would like his next fight to be with Filipino Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather confidently stated, “I’m going to talk to my team and, if the Pacquiao [fight] presents itself, let’s make it happen”.
