Floyd Mayweather Jr. dominates Marcos Maidana in rematch

LAS VEGAS — Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. finally put to rest whatever doubts some members of the boxing fraternity may have had after his close first bout with Marcos Maidana in May 2014.

The undefeated 37-year-old pugilist put on an excellent boxing performance in their rematch to improve to a 47-0, 26 KOs record, coming by way of unanimous decision to successfully defend his welterweight and junior middleweight world titles in front of a crowd of 16,144 on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

The judges scored the bout 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112, all in favor of Mayweather. Ghanafans.com had it 118-109 for Mayweather, who boxed smartly throughout the course of the fight, however, in a very unusual occurrence in the eighth round, he complained of being bitten on his left hand by the hard-hitting Maidana.

The rematch played out differently from the highly entertaining first fight in May, when Maidana took the fight to Mayweather and gave him a very stern test as had not been witnessed in a long time in the latter's sterling career. Maidana continuously bullied Mayweather with hard punches and combinations on the ropes, although he kept swinging wildly in the process. The first fight was undoubtedly one of the toughest bouts in Mayweather's flourishing career, but he managed to make adjustments and won via a majority decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where most of his fights have been staged.

Mayweather uncharacteristically agreed to fight Maidana in a rematch in what was only the second time he had done so in his career; he defeated Jose Luis Castillo on two occasions in their lightweight world title fights twelve years ago (2002).

Team Mayweather definitely did their homework well coming into this fight as their highly skilled prizefighter never allowed the 31-year-old Argentine, Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs), to fight in his very aggressive style in which he throws the awkward and unforeseen heavy overhand right shots which he had a lot of success with in the first encounter. Mayweather also stayed off the ropes as much as possible throughout the rematch. Mayweather instead did what he does best- continuously moved, danced, and threw effective counter-punches and stuck to keeping  the action in the center of the ring for long periods of what was a master class tactical showing.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. improves to 47-0
“I think the difference was I didn't stay on the ropes and I did a lot of movement and turning,” Mayweather said after the fight. “He's a tough competitor. I do have some bumps and bruises but I listened to my dad [trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr.], who always says hit and don't get hit and that's how you last in this sport.

“I felt sharper in the first fight. My rhythm was a little off. I gave myself a C, C-minus. I thought I could have done a lot better. I got hit with some shots I shouldn't have.”

Marcos Maidana had tremendous support from the crowd, mainly from his countrymen, as noticed whenever they cheered him when he hit the American star boxer, nevertheless it was Mayweather who kept his opponent at bay with jabs and flashy counter right hands. Maidana did well to land effective and accurate shots of his own, including a powerful right hand at the end of the third round that caught Mayweather's attention, but he quickly bounced back from it.

Maidana took the fight to Mayweather in the fifth round, pushing his back against the ropes and relentlessly executed his offense. He banged Floyd with a couple of right hands before Mayweather skillfully escaped the danger.

There was a sting in the tale of the fight in the eighth round, when Maidana found himself in a position with his head bowed close to Mayweather's midsection in what seemed to be a headlock. As they battled to break free, Mayweather jerked away and complained to the man in charge, Kenny Bayless that Maidana had bitten him on his left hand. At the end of the round, he moved towards the media end of the ring and shouted, “He bit me!”

The incident in round 8 brought memories of the highly anticipated 1997 heavyweight title clash between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, in which the latter had a portion of his ear bitten off by the former at the same venue! Amazingly, Holyfield was at ringside on Saturday night.

“I didn't know what it was,” Mayweather said. “Something happened and then my fingers were numb. After the eighth round my fingers were numb. I could only use my other hand. He bit me. I realized he bit me.

“We were tangled in the middle of the ring and all of a sudden I felt something on my left hand.”

Maidana quickly defended himself although video replays showed something seemingly fishy going on.

“Maybe he thinks I'm a dog, but I never bit him,” Maidana stated through his translator. “He was rubbing my eyes that round. He may have had his glove in my mouth, but I never bit him.”

Maidana suucessfully landed punches (221) against Mayweather more than any boxer had in the 37 past Mayweather fights tracked by CompuBox in The Moment . In Mayhem , Mayweather hit the target at 51 percent as 166 of 326 punches connected while Maidana successfully landed 128 of his 572 shots thrown (22 percent).

At the end of round 9, a clearly bewildered Maidana walked straight to the wrong corner only for Mayweather to draw his attention and point him in the right direction to the proper one, sparking some laughter from the crowd.

The erstwhile two-division champion Maidana, who was way behind on the scorecards, was deducted a point by Bayless for forcefully pushing Mayweather to the canvas in the 10th round.

Mayweather, aware of his clear lead, went into a defensive approach with continuous movement in the final round as Maidana failed to catch him in the ring. Astonishingly, Maidana felt he won the fight.

“If the judges want to give the fight to fighters that run, they can give it to him,” he said. “I was attacking all the time. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that I was the aggressor. I kept my plan to be aggressive but he kept holding and pushing.

“I don't want to waste my time with a third fight. I trained with all my heart to get this type of result. This is not fair. There's not reason for another fight.”

This was the fourth of the six-fight contract penned in early 2013 between Showtime/CBS  and Mayweather, who cashed out at least $32 million ($888,889 per minute) while Maidana took home $3 million ($83,333 per minute). There are two fights left and no clear challenger remains other than Pacquiao, who has a contract with rival HBO. However, Bob Arum , Pacquiao's promoter claims the networks are working collectively on a joint pay-per-view, as witnessed in the 2002 Lennox Lewis-Tyson heavyweight championship fight.

Hopefully, a deal can be finally made this time around although Mayweather clearly stated after the fight that it had to be on Showtime — followers of boxing have been pushing for this fight for years — and Pacquiao would have to successfully defend his welterweight title against Chris Algieri on November 22 in Macau, China.

“I'm gonna go and talk to my team and see what the future holds,” Mayweather said. “I don't know who I'm fighting in May but I expect to fight in May. Manny Pacquiao needs to focus on the guy in front of him. Once he gets past him, he can look to the future. If the Pacquiao fight presents itself let's make it happen.”

At the end of the day, it comes down to both camps.

WATCH THE FULL FIGHT HIGHLIGHTS BELOW: