Getting back to his notorious defensive style, Floyd Mayweather cruised to an unanimous decision victory over Marcos Maidana in their rematch on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mayweather’s struggles from the initial fight were a thing of the past as he put on a boxing masterpiece, defeating Maidana by a score of 116-111, 116-11, 115-12 to retain his welterweight and junior middleweight world titles.
After an action packed first fight that saw Maidana give Mayweather the toughest test of his career, the second go around lacked the excitement, with Mayweather controlling from start to finish to remain undefeated at 47-0.
Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) shied away from the strategy that made him successful enough to land a rematch, opting to stand in and box with Mayweather instead of smothering him against the ropes.
The aggressive style was still present in spurts for Maidana, but Mayweather was at his defensive best, evading Maidana’s power punches and slipping away from the ropes.
Mayweather ultimately got back to what’s made him so unsolvable over the years, a stark difference from the first fight when he allowed his defense to slip in favor of exchanging punches with Maidana. This time, he moved from side to side, utilizing his outstanding footwork to evade any sort of danger from Maidana while picking his spots to land beautiful right hands and jabs.
Mayweather’s brilliant display saw him connect on 51 percent of his punches, compared to Maidana’s 22 percent (according to Showtime stats), ultimately landing 166 punches to Maidana’s 128.
It was a far cry from the first bout when Maidana was hounding Mayweather for the first six rounds before tiring out. Instead, Mayweather dictated the fight with his defense and ability land a plethora of counter punches to keep Maidana at bay.
Although Maidana said he intended on pacing himself after he admittedly ran out of gas back in May, the strategy worked in Mayweather’s favor.
Instead of being the constant aggressor, Maidana stayed in the middle of the ring — for large portions of the fight — where Mayweather is at his best, giving the champion space to roam around the canvas and stay out of trouble.
The most action came in round four, arguably the only frame that Maidana won. The two exchanged a flurry of punches, with El Chino keeping Mayweather pinned to the ropes and finishing off with a strong variety of body shots.
However, Mayweather dominated the rest of the way, frustrating Maidana with his elusive defense tactics and smartly-timed counterpunches, including some big right hands to Maidana’s face.
The only action for the remainder of the bout was when Maidana apparently bit Mayweather’s left hand that caused a brief stoppage in the match. Maidana denied the bite after the fight, but Mayweather seemed adamant about the incident.
With the dominant showing by Mayweather, all the questions about his speed and legs that arose from the first fight seemingly evaporated.
The pound-for-pound king has two fights remaining on his Showtime contract. There is no obvious opponent in waiting right now, but whoever it is will clearly still have their hands full.
