Sport
Floyd Mayweather Jr., retains his championship belt after defeating Marcos Maidana in tough duel
“It was a tough, competitive fight,” Mayweather said. “I normally like to go out there and box and move. But he put pressure on me. I wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see so I stood and fought him. Maidana raised his arms in victory when the final bell sounded, and Mayweather watched pensively from his corner as the scorecards were added up before he was declared the winner.
Punch stats by Compubox showed Mayweather landing 230 of 426 punches to 221 of 858 for Maidana. It was the most punches landed by any fighter against Mayweather in 38 fights where punch stats were compiled.
Maidana had a big lead in the early rounds through his constant aggression. But Mayweather won 5 of the last 7 rounds on two scorecards and six of seven on a third to pull out the win by a narrow margin.
“I couldn’t see for two rounds after the head butt,” Mayweather said. “After I could see again it didn’t bother me. That’s what champions do, they survive and adjust.”
Maidana had said before the fight he was going to treat Mayweather like any other fighter and go right after him. He did just that, bringing the sellout crowd at the MGM Grand hotel to its feet as he landed some big overhand right hands to the top of Mayweather’s head.
Mayweather, who earned US$32 million for the fight, was a 6-1 favorite coming to remain unbeaten. He had picked Maidana as an opponent because Maidana beat Adrien Broner in an upset in December, but he almost made the wrong pick.
Mayweather seemed confused early and unable to adapt to the wild punches thrown by Maidana. It wasn’t until the middle rounds that he got into more of a rhythm, hitting Maidana with hooks to the body and right punches to the head.
