Mere minutes after Floyd Mayweather Jr. outpointed Marcos Maidana in their highly competitive May 3rd bout, the opponents were already jawing back and forth about a rematch.
Maidana especially made noise when he told the media at the post-fight press conference that he would “give Mayweather the rematch” after he felt he was in fact the winner of the fight.
Well it appears Maidana got his wish after Mayweather broke the news, telling LaTen Media before Sunday night’s BET Awards that he and Maidana would give it another go around.
“Sept. 13, back to business, Marcos Maidana-Floyd Mayweather, part II,” Mayweather said. “And then in May, I’m fighting in May and I’ll have a big surprise for ya’ll.”
While Mayweather’s announcement hasn’t been formally confirmed by Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe or any of Maidana’s people, it clearly seems that a second showdown between Mayweather-Maidana is imminent.
Maidana’s manager, Sebastian Contursi, told ESPN.com on Tuesday that no official deal had been struck yet.
However, Maidana appears to have backed up Mayweather’s statements with his own via Twitter.
“REMATCH in the talks. Respect for @FloydMayweather man of his word, yet only fist talk in the ring. #LATINPOWER”
A rematch was largely expected after Maidana gave Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) one of the toughest fights of his illustrious 18-year career in their welterweight unification bout on May 3 in Las Vegas.
Maidana came out swinging with an aggressive style that had Mayweather out of sync during the early rounds. It was a physical fight, but Mayweather ultimately regrouped and overcame Maidana in a majority decision victory with scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114.
Despite Maidana’s respectable effort that likely warranted a part 2, this fight is probably only happening because Mayweather is simply out of top tier opponents. With no progress on a Pacquiao fight in years and Amir Khan out of the running due to Ramadan, Maidana is Mayweather’s best and only option.
However, it is interesting that Mayweather said he had a “big surprise” for us in May. Whether that’s him hinting at a super fight with Pacquiao or just some PR tactic, we won’t know. Nonetheless, it does provide some hope for a potential showdown between the two icons.
Until then, we will have to settle for a rematch against Maidana. Given Mayweather’s $32 million earnings from the first Maidana bout and the likely (Showtime didn’t release the numbers) less than stellar PPV buys, Money better hope he can start generating some more exciting fights in the future.
