Maidana forced Mayweather to fight out his usual pot-shooting and he succeeded for most of the earlier to middle rounds which made him look very, very good and highly competitive. Most observers had him leading up to that point but Floyd took control the rest of the way.
It was a close fight that could have been a draw.
But Floyd also impressed the judges by holding his own in a fight where Maidana dictated the tenor and the tempo.
As much as I am a Mayweather fan, I am more of a boxing fan, its much more important to be fair and honest.
Maidana at minimum got a draw, but he also could have pulled a one or two point win. I made sure to do two rewatches of this fight before saying this.
For one, Maidana took control of the fight early, and although Mayweather had MOMENTS where he seemed to be taking it back, he never took control of the fight, or Maidana. Maidana did a tried and true formula against boxers, going back to Jake LaMotta and SRR. You rush and control, you bodyshot and maul. If he wont leave you the option, you take the ones you can get.
Hyping about Maidana fighting dirty should be light...no one has EVER called out Mayweather OR Hopkins on how dirty they fight...its more the matter of it being obvious. I mean how many times can you take a forward elbow to the throat?
Although Floyd had moments, and I dont deny how well he adjusted, it was amazing....he never took the rhythm away from Maidana...and Maidana to his credit realized rather ingeniously that if Mayweather is going to do that odd ducking he does, to loop his punch and come down on it...he hit Mayweather alot more than he is used to.
If this fight was in NYC...it would have been a completely different decision. Even Floyd thought he lost.
I saw it 7-5 Mayweather, but i did grade it by you having to beat Floyd convincingly to get the round. So I gave Floyd a little favoritism, but Floyd made Maidana miss a lot, something he didn't do against Castillo. I def. don't think its's crazy for someone to say Draw, that fight could of easily been a draw, Maidana was constantly putting his self out their to make it a great fight, he enforced the fight.
Mayweather won if you count cliches as punches!
Lol nah but for real I had Maidana winning 116-112 the night of the fight. I haven't rewatched it since but I really feel that Chino won. To me it looked like a much closer version of Pacquiao vs Bradley. Maidana won 5 out of the first 6 rounds because every time Maidana would hit Floyd he would run and hold. He must've clinched 15 times every round. Floyd did win the majority of the later rounds but I had him beat.
It's funny how people judge fights based on who's fighting. If they're the best in the world it's easy to get the impression that they're unbeatable. I've caught myself giving close rounds to Pacquiao and Mayweather before just because they are Pacquiao and Mayweather but I'm telling you right now, Floyd lost that fight.
If the fight were held in Argentina, Maidana would be declared the winner. But, having been held in the U.S., particularly Floyd's hometown of Nevada, the odds are tilted in his favor, and in a very close match such as this one was, I'd be more inclined to give the win to Floyd.
Maidana won, although he did win through quite a few rabbit punches. Truth is that the rabbit punches isn't what gave him the victory, rather it was his aggressiveness to brawl and fight and not get into a technical boxing match.
Mayweather is a king of technical boxing, right up there with Lennox Lewis.
I watched the fight several times and each time I came away with Maidana winning. He was much more aggressive, he cut the ring off, always forcing Mayweather to the corner. He pummeled Manyweather with body punches and got some power punches in. I don't think it's even a question. Mayweather won for 2 reasons (1) Hometown cooking - the 2 judges who scored Mayweather by a wide margin should be banned. (2) Money - If Maywather looses, he looses that marketability edge plus his contract with Showtime would take a hit.
Why would anyone want to be a boxer? A sport where winning is in the hands of 'judges' and you don't know the score until the contest is over!! A terrible system!
The fight was competitive. Mayweather landed more jabs while Maidana landed more powerpunches [according to compubox], and no compubox does not count low blows,, elbows or clinches as punches.
Most of Maidanas effective punches were bodyshots while Mayweathers most effective shots were straight right to the head.
By Showtime punch counter Maidana won 6 out of the first 10 rounds and I think he won the first 6 rounds. The judges did not count all the punches Maidana landed and Mayweather held and pushed off with his forearm all night. Maidana won and at worse a draw. One referee saw it as a draw.
Maidana won he landed the more power blows.
Maidana has one of the most awkward styles of boxing I've ever seen. No discernible fighting style from what I saw. He pretty much crouched, charged in with a wild series of overhead punches, and bumrushed Mayweather into the ropes for much of the fight. And Mayweather didn't do himself a favor by allowing him to get pushed back in the first place. Maidana has no footwork to speak of, also (unless you count those knees he put to Mayweather a couple of times).
But seriously, Maidana only would have "won" that fight because his fighting style is so awkward...and juvenile.
It was a draw
I think so!
