On an another bizarre night among many in this crazy sport, Floyd Mayweather boxed his way to a 47th straight victory with one good hand over the last four rounds after complaining that Marcos Maidana bit his left, a call with which nearly everyone in the arena but the Argentinian and his camp agreed.
More significant than the validity of the claim, however – and it looked incriminating on several slow-motion replays – was Mayweather’s assertion afterwards that he is prepared to negotiate a fight with Manny Pacquiao. “I’m going to talk to my team and, if the Pacquiao [fight] presents itself, let’s make it happen,” he said.
He did not say if the Filipino would be his next opponent, in May 2015, but it is at least looking more likely than at any time in the past five years. That leaves Amir Khan, who arrived in Las Vegas in the late afternoon after overcoming visa problems – apparently with the help of David Cameron – again wondering if he will get the fight Mayweather first promised him last December.
In this reprise of the closer but no less dramatic first meeting between Mayweather and Maidana in the same ring in May, the champion was better served by the judges, winning 115-112 and 116-111 twice, a fair reflection of the gap between the fighters. I agreed with the first of those scores.
The low point was the biting incident – the most high-profile in boxing since Mike Tyson’s infamous chomp on Evander Holyfield’s ear (both of the former champions were ringside) – and Maidana’s protestation of innocence was unconvincing.
“He thinks I’m a dog,” the loser said, “but I never bit him. I thought I won the fight but, if the judges want to give it to someone who runs, good luck to him. No, no, I didn’t bite him. Maybe he put his glove in my mouth.” As the-dog-ate-my-homework excuses go, that one was up there.
Mayweather saw it differently: “At first I didn’t know what had happened but then I realised that he bit me. My fingers went numb after the eighth round. I could only really use the other hand. He’s a tough opponent. I was sharper in the first fight, much better. I give myself maybe a C, a C-minus. I’m better than that. I got hit with shots I shouldn’t have gotten hit with. I’m staying busy. In the past I fought once a year, now it’s twice a year, a lot better.”
Mayweather was being a little hard on himself. After a nervous start, he hit some peaks of excellence other fighters can only dream about, although there must still be a few doubts about his speed.
He went to the ropes after a minute and Maidana clipped him with a right high on his head, enough to edge the round. The champion was letting the second round slip, as Maidana rumbled with intent, but he saved a share of the points with a solid flurry towards the bell.
Mayweather’s father, Floyd Sr, promised beforehand that his son would move more than he did in the first fight and he was certainly light on his feet in the opening exchanges, dancing, side to side, back and forward, movement that would not have looked out of place in an Argentinian tango.
For all that Maidana’s renowned trainer, Robert Garcia, a former world champion who is only a couple of years older than Mayweather, had said that his fighter would bring something different to the rematch, there was little ambiguity about his work. He does not own an 80% stoppage record for nothing and on the bell in the fourth, he rocked Mayweather with the best punch the champion has taken since Shane Mosley stopped him in his tracks briefly in 2010.
The fight came alive as Maidana, rising to the chorus of “El Chino!” from the Hispanic members of the capacity crowd, had his opponent in all sorts of trouble with shots to body and head. Mayweather countered with sharp single shots, but could not fend off the determined challenger.
Briefly, there was the smell of an upset. Mayweather’s 37-year-old legs had slowed and the reflexes that have kept his record a sheet clean for 18 years were not always sharp enough. But he took advantage of Maidana resting in round five to steal the points.
In the first fight Maidana’s stamina faded, which he blamed on a short, five-week training camp, but he has a new conditioner and put in a solid eight weeks for this one. He needed to find some of that lung and leg power to reassert himself, but Mayweather had finally found a rhythm and was punishing him with uppercuts and his trademark long right.
Bleeding from the mouth, Mayweather steeled himself for what he had always suspected was going to be a tough finish, whatever his desire for a knockout. But he was bossing Maidana from long range now, making him miss and making him pay. For the first time in the fight, Mayweather was on the front foot, and the challenger was showing signs of distress and confusion – walking distractedly to the wrong corner at the end of the seventh.
The tango was now not a pretty one, as El Chino, drained by the steady body punches of his artful opponent, fell back on some of the fouling tactics that had marred their first meeting. Mouth and gloved thumb connected, illegally or not, and Kenny Bayliss, in his fifth fight in charge of a Mayweather world title bout, took Maidana to his corner and issued a warning.
Now there was renewed edge to the fight – as much dental as mental. Maidana, aggrieved perhaps, rediscovered his early bounce and anger, but he continued to run into steady fire. A left jab snapped his head back – and again he walked to a neutral corner, Mayweather stopping to point him in the right direction. That is a first in this reporter’s 40 years of watching the sport.
As they entered the championship rounds, Maidana was as furious as a wasp, and was docked a point when he wrestled Mayweather to the canvas for the second time in the fight. He wanted a brawl now, not a boxing match, but the wilder he got, the more control the master took of the contest, slipping, countering and waiting for that knockout opportunity. He was up on his toes and supremely relaxed.
Mayweather hit his man low in the 11th, and Maidana took a rest in that same neutral corner he had walked to twice earlier; it is as well he did not assume there was a stool to sit on. He refused Mayweather’s proffered glove of reconciliation and went whaling in again, with not much to show for it. The man with the prison tattoos and the bullet wound in the middle of his back was never going to finesse this contest.
They did touch gloves at the start of the final round, but the pleasantries ended there. Maidana needed a knockout, Mayweather still wanted one – although he was not going to throw his “O” in pursuit of it. The Argentinian’s supporters booed the American as he led their man a dance, exactly as he had in the first couple of rounds. He had trained to perfection yet again and, despite a few anxious moments, turned in another very good performance. There was no hug at the end.
• Carl Frampton, who won the IBF super-bantamweight title with an impressive points win over Kiko Martinez in Belfast last weekend, will have watched Leo Santa Cruz’s quick destruction of his former sparring partner, Manuel Roman, with considerable interest.
Santa Cruz, who retained his WBC super-bantamweight title in his ninth world title fight and is unbeaten in 28 fights, is on the Irishman’s radar. He said before the fight that Frampton, then Scott Quigg, who retained his diluted WBA version of the championship by stopping the moderate Belgian late substitute Stephane Jamboye in three rounds in Manchester on Friday night, are his preferred opponents before he goes after the estimable Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Less than a minute into the second round it was over, Roman toppled by a chopping right that detonated like a bomb behind his left ear. He beat the count, but stumbled groggily into the ropes and was led to his corner.
Santa Cruz, born in Mexico 26 years ago and living in California, is known as Teremoto, or Earthquake. He certainly made the earth move for his old friend Roman.