Mayweather: If a Pacquiao fight happens, it must be on Showtime PPV

09/14/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) Last night, WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) put on a master class performance in defeating Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision in an action-packed fight from start to finish at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Maidana gave it his all, but Mayweather’s ability to avoid his huge power shots was the key to victory for Mayweather.

After the fight, Mayweather was asked if he would be interested in facing WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather said that Pacquiao first needs to get past Chris Algieri in November, but then other than that, he’ll need to agree to fight on Showtime pay-per-view and Mayweather Promotions would be the one doing the fight, not Top Rank, the promoters for Pacquiao. Either of those two things are likely more than enough for the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight not to happen, but with both of them in place, it’s not likely there will be a fight between them unless Mayweather changes his mind.

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Floyd Mayweather Remains Perfect In Rematch With Marcos Maidana on SHOWTIME PPV

09/14/201409/14/2014 Showtime Boxing

After 24 rounds of boxing with Marcos Maidana, Floyd Mayweather is still the undisputed pound-for-pound champion.

Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) successfully defended his WBC and WBA Welterweight and WBC Super Welterweight World Championships with a unanimous 12-round decision victory in a rematch with Argentine slugger Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) on Saturday in front of 16,144 fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, live on SHOWTIME PPV®.

“Money” strategically fought the fight that he wanted, effectively avoiding the looping punches against the ropes that “El Chino” was able to land in their first bout and pivoting back to his domain – the center of the ring.

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Mayweather defeats Maidana; Santa Cruz destroys Roman; Bey defeats Vazquez

09/14/201409/13/2014 Rob Smith

Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) resorted to biting tonight but it still didn’t help him against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) who easily registered his 47th consecutive win on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Maidana took Mayweather’s left hand out of commission in the 8th round after allegedly biting Mayweather hard on his fingers of of his left hand while he had him in a headlock.

The referee Kenny Bayless didn’t see the bite by Maidana so he couldn’t do anything about it. Never the less, Mayweather was unable to use his left hand again with regularity until a couple rounds later. What was interesting is that Maidana denied biting Mayweather after the fight even though a replay showed Maidana appearing to bite Mayweather.

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Mayweather vs Maidana II: Keys to Victory, Four to Explore, Official Prediction!

09/13/201409/13/2014 Vivek Wallace

Four months ago, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather encountered what most viewed as the toughest night of his 18 year career at the hands of Argentinean slugger Marcos ‘Chino’ Maidana. From the moment the final bell rang, fans all around the world have been split on what we witnessed. Mayweather critics felt he would avoid a risky rematch at all cost; supporters felt there was no need for one. Yet here we stand at the doorstep of a sequel, and tonight, once and for all, questions raised will be questions answered. As we prepare for this epic showdown, we take a look at keys to victory, four critical game changers to explore, and an official prediction:

FLOYD MAYWEATHER – KEYS TO VICTORY

Tonight, Mayweather will need to start fast and dictate the tone early. Part of that process will need to be dedication to aggressive body work. In their first fight, once he went to the body, we saw an immediate change in the overall aggression of Maidana as Mayweather slowed him down rather quickly. Aside from body work, Mayweather needs to keep all exchanges in the middle of the ring. Maidana missed 637 punches in the first fight, and of the 221 he landed, more than 70% came against the ropes. If Mayweather can stay off the ropes, be first, and commit to the body, a little footwork would cement his chances of victory, barring an unexpected powershot that he fails to overcome.

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Espinoza expects Mayweather-Maidana 2 to do better than last time in PPV sales

09/13/201409/13/2014 Rob Smith

(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) Showtime vice president of Sports Stephen Espinoza acknowledges that there’s been a drop off in pay-per-view sales lately in boxing largely due to the huge amount of PPV events that have been taking place in the past year.

We’ve seen the likes of Manny Pacquiao’s PPV sales plummet from 1 million PPV buy mark to as low as 475,000 for his fight against Brandon Rios last year. However, Espinoza believes that WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr’s rematch tonight against Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) will do better than their previous fight last May. Espinoza expects the fight to do well on Showtime pay-per-view.

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Roach: Mayweather’s legs are shot, Khan beats him now

09/13/2014 Rob Smith

Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach thinks WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) has deteriorated to the point where now even Amir Khan can beat him. Roach is saying this week that Khan’s speed would be too much for the 37-year-old Mayweather now.

Roach thinks that Mayweather can no longer move around the ring like he once did, even though he showed excellent movement a year ago in defeating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by a 12 round decision in one of Mayweather’s biggest wins of his career.

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Mayweather a huge favorite to defeat Maidana

09/13/2014 Jeff Sorby

(Photo credit: Sumio Yamada) Tonight’s “Mayhem” fight card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada has a number of the A-side fighters as huge, huge favorites to win starting with the headlining fight between WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) vs. Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs). Mayweather is a whopping 12-1 favorite to defeat Maidana, according to Fightnews. I don’t know about you but 8:1 odds are pretty steep.

The most troubling fight on this card is the clear mismatch in the co-feature bout between WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KOs) and the fringe contender that he’s being matched against from the bantamweight division named Manuel Roman (17-2-3, 6 KOs). Santa Cruz is a 50:1 favorite to defeat the #13 WBC Manuel Roman.

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Maidana looking flabby and not in great condition

09/13/2014 Jeff Sorby

If you saw Friday’s weigh-in, you might have noticed that Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) had a little bit of fat around his midsection, notably along the sides and his lower abdomen for his rematch tonight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Could it be that Maidana made a big mistake by letting his strength and condition coach Alex Ariza go? Ariza had Maidana looking trim and in top shape without the jellyroll around Maidana’s sides. There’s no excuse for a fighter to have that kind of flab hanging over his trousers when he’s had s full 9 weeks of training like Maidana has had for this fight.

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Yay or Nay for Mayweather, Jr. Gets Complicated

09/12/201409/12/2014 Paul Strauss

Big fight tomorrow night at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, NV. The rematch is billed as “Mayhem” or Mayweather vs Maidana II. Until recently Mayweather, Jr., thought he had fans right where he wanted them, and that’s in paying seats. In the recent past, it bothered him not one iota whether fans were paying to see him win or lose, just as long as they’re paying!

On the surface, it is no great slight to him if a number of fans object to his bragging. Few disapproved because of any character flaw. Rather, these boxing fans feel Money manages his career too carefully, which is a polite way of saying he avoids certain worthy opponents because they might be a threat to his “O” in the loss column. That group also argues his style is too defensive. They want a red blooded macho champion. They want to see Money get clobbered, and they’re willing to pay to see it. Money, of course, likes the pay part. Whether they’re paying to see him win or to get trounced makes no difference to the bottom line, and that’s the only line drawn in the sand Money cares about.

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Mayhem II: Follow The Money!

09/12/2014 Gary J. Cooper

Last night I caught some twitter buzz about Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos “El Chino” Maidana II. Specifically, @boxingcrazy78 said,

“The ref for @FloydMayweather vs @ChinoMaidana is Kenny Bayless. I’m telling you now, this is already a different fight hugely in Floyd’s favor”

This is kind of a big deal, since in the last fight Maidana’s strategy was essentially to fight as dirty as possible in order to find a way past Mayweather’s stellar defense. If you don’t recall just how dirty Maidana was, there is a brilliant video on Bad Left Hook that breaks down the dirtiness, frame-by-frame. If you thought “El Chino” looked dirty before, you should seehim in slow motion.

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