Floyd Mayweather improved to 46-0 (26 KOs) Saturday night with a questionable majority decision win over Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) in what appeared to be a much closer fight than the scorecards reflected. Two judges saw the contest as a comfortable Mayweather victory (117-111 and 116-112) while a third had it even at 114 each.
Mayweather began the fight trying to jab his way out of trouble, but Maidana's sloppy, bullish style frustrated him through the first round. Mayweather couldn't dance away from most of the exchanges as Maidana backed him up against the ropes.
Floyd started to pick up the pace in the last thirty seconds of the round with some nice combos, but Maidana's aggressive attack included winging overhand punches from crazy angles. As if to remind Mayweather how much of a dirty fighter he can be, Maidana ended the first round with a low blow at the bell.
Floyd kept his distance and managed to land more counters in the second round. Maidana began drilling Mayweather with head and body punches against the ropes near the halfway mark. As the round came to a close, it appeared Mayweather was not as focused as he has been in past fights. Maidana's awkward style definitely had him rattled.
Maidana continued clubbing away with roundhouse after roundhouse in the third. Mayweather's combos were landing occasionally, but he fought mostly behind a solid jab. Maidana kept moving forward, holding and hitting, and going to war on the inside. Mayweather came on strong in the final minute, which might have been enough to give him the round.
The fourth round was perhaps the ugliest of the night as Maidana kept up the charging in, resulting in a clash of heads that cut Mayweather's eye open. Other than an elbow of his own in the clinch, Floyd had no answers for Maidana's looping overhand rights. He finished the round looking frustrated and lost.
Mayweather maintained a defensive approach in the fifth, but he stepped up the offense just enough to slow down Maidana's relentless attacks. Still, Maidana's level changing and tenacity were impressive. Through the sixth round, Maidana's battering of Mayweather against the ropes continued to work wonders for the Argentinian.
Mayweather seemed intent on throwing one punch at a time and spent most of the round trying to tie up and escape. He did come on strong toward the end of the round with more aggressive punching, but he faced an uphill battle going into the second half of the fight.
Maidana took his foot off the gas in the seventh round, executing poorly with slapping punches. Despite looking tired at the start of the round, Mayweather found some reserves and seemed to be landing more counters. His combos were suddenly landing as he found his range and went into target practice mode in the final minute.
The range finding helped Mayweather maintain an advantage in the center of the ring for the next two rounds. Maidana's agressive, clubbing attack and brawling tactics also continued. A low blow landed near the end of the eighth that buckled Floyd momentarily, but the action continued after a warning.
Maidana gave as good as he received until Mayweather truly came alive in the 10th. Finally, Maidana's brawling caught up with him as Floyd decided to go back to the basics of boxing. He had his best round of the night in the 10th, dodging the best shots from Maidana and hammering Maidana's head and body with power punches.
Some rough-housing marred the 11th round with Maidana tackling Mayweather first and then Mayweather responding by putting Maidana in a headlock moments later. Mayweather landed some combos early in the round only to lose control later in the frame.
Maidana seemed to be retreating more at the beginning of the round, but he launched an aggressive assault in the closing minute. Mayweather utilized a perfect "stick and move" strategy in the final round until Maidana blitzed him to slow him down a bit. The brawl continued to the final bell, and with a little hometown cooking Mayweather was all smiles at the end of the night.
Mayweather called the bout "a tough, competitive fight" and complained that he "couldn't see for two rounds" due to the cut. He gave some props to his cut man, Rafael Garcia, for stopping the bleeding and keeping him in the fight. As far as a rematch, Mayweather was open to the possibility.
"If the fans want to see it again, we can do it again," he said repeatedly.
Maidana did not appear to be completely outraged by the loss, but he did have some choice words for his opponent.
"Floyd did not fight like a man like I expected him to," said Maidana. "I have to give him the rematch, because I won the fight."
Read more on the next page to find out the verdict of the undercard fights
Undercards
The co-main event saw Amir Khan's triumphant return to the ring after a long layoff. Khan improved to 29-3 with 19 KOs against a plodding Luis Collazo (35-6, 18 KOs). Khan spent the bulk of the fight utilizing a conservative, hands-up defense while landing nice straight right hands and beautiful counters.
He also used the clinch game to his advantage, which eventually cost him a point late in the fight for holding. Collazo simply stalked Khan, throwing one punch at a time and leaving his hands down by his chest through the majority of the contest.
Collazo hit the deck once in the fourth round from a short right hand and twice in the 10th due to combos from Khan. It was Khan's first fight at 147 pounds, and he looked confident and much-improved. The judges scored the contest 117-106 on one card and 119-104 on the other two.
Adrien Broner and J'Leon Love, two of Mayweather's most impressive proteges, also came away from their bouts victorious. Broner (28-1, 20 KOs) bounced back nicely from his loss to Maidana with a one-sided beating of Carlos Molina (17-2-1, 7 KOs).
Love (18-0, 10 KOs) overcame some early adversity and a flash knockdown to earn a unanimous decison win against Marco Antonio Periban (20-2-1, 13 KOs). Ironically, it was the untelevised undercard that provided the bulk of the night's fireworks. None of those fights went the distance with all winners getting their knockouts in 5 rounds or less.
