Will a 38-year-old Mayweather be ripe for the picking come May/September 2015?
Last night Floyd “money” Mayweather improved his record to 47-0 under the usual lights of the MGM Grand arena, in what was a convincing if not vintage performance. In a rematch to their May bout, Mayweather started early, moved and used his feet more, spoiled when necessary, fought and connected when he had to on the way to a relatively comfortable unanimous 115 – 112, 116-111, 116-111 victory.
For the record I had the fight 116-111, with Floyd winning it 8-4 rounds. Out of those four rounds, I feel Maidana only won two clearly (rounds four and twelve). I gave Maidana rounds eight and nine but they could have easily been scored even or a split with Floyd.
It was a funny sort of fight as it seemed fairly comfortable for Floyd with him on his toes, moving more compared to their first encounter, connecting with his usual clean shots but avoiding more. But I favoured his work in the first fight, probably because Maidana forced him to work more, which showed his skills more, which in turn delivered more action.
I have to also add Mayweather did do a lot more holding and spoiling than I liked and referee Kenny Bayliss did not cover himself with much glory, stepping in to break them at every opportunity, depriving the boxers and the fans of seeing them fight up close.
In this fight, though Maidana made Floyd work throughout, his intensity levels wasn’t the same which made his success rate considerably lower. This obviously had a lot to do with Mayweather’s tactics.
The only real success Maidana had was at the end of the third, a straight right hand made Floyd slightly stumble and seemed to stiffen Floyd’s legs, right on the bell.
Other than that nothing real clean and his frustrations showed when he appeared to bite Mayweather’s fingers through the glove in the clinch, on the blind side of the ref during the eighth round. Then using a forearm elbow to Mayweathers throat, bundling him to the floor which caused him to lose a point in round ten.
In the first fight Mayweather stayed on the ropes, opting to battle and “tough it out”. This time he moved and boxed more, keeping Maidana at arm’s length, much like he said he could have when everyone criticised him after their first fight.
Naturally he’s been met with a barrage of criticism, most stating he was boring, he ran most of the fight and held. Personally I saw a very skilled fighter, out-class, out think and out manouvre a tough but limited fighter.
I cannot really blame Floyd, with all the euphoria that followed Maidana after their first fight, I’m sure he thought “ok, if that’s what y’all think, I’ll give him the rematch, box and move, make it comfortable and pick up a cool $60 odd mill” ….Good day at the office then.
Khan or Pacquiao?
So what is next for Mayweather? He possibly has two more fights left on his Showtime deal, maybe even one. In his post fight press conference the only two fighters mentioned were Amir Khan and Manny Pacquiao.
Although this second fight looked more comfortable than the first, I agree with Floyd in giving him a C for this fight. Not sure if it was because it was comfortable or he just did what he had to, but Floyd looked a bit slower and less sharper to me. Dare I say father time could finally be creeping up on him?
Moving forward to his last fight or fights, even though Pacquiao is the one everyone wants, in my opinion, stylistically, Khan looks the harder fight. Khan is younger than Pacman, sharper, arguably quicker and at this stage of Pacman’s career more of a pressure fighter.
I feel he will give Floyd more problems and with Floyd being not much of a power puncher, Khan’s chin should hold up. Pacman on the other hand will provide that same pressure type style but his experience and extra power will provide a different sort of test.
Even though Floyd’s footwork helped him to a comfortable victory, as stated, he did do a lot of spoiling and got caught not more often but with shots we were used to seeing him avoid. For that reason maybe, just maybe another twelve months down the line, with his career winding down, it might just be the perfect time for Floyd’s 0 to go…..
