Photo credit: Esther Lin
24 rounds later and Mayweather still remains undefeated.
In his rematch with Marcos Maidana, Mayweather scored a unanimous decision, winning on all three judge's scorecards, 116-112, 115-111 and 115-111. "Money" landed 51% of his total punches versus 22% for "El Chino". This included power punches, which favored Mayweather again, 58% to 26%. Said Mayweather:
"He’s a tough opponent and I did what I had to do tonight. I just didn’t stay on the ropes. I have a couple bumps and bruises because he’s a wild young fighter. My father told me to hit and not get hit and that’s what we did. I felt sharper in the first fight. I felt a little dry and dead in this fight. I give myself a C, a C-minus. I could have been better. I got hit with some shots tonight that I shouldn’t have gotten hit with. But that comes with the sport.”
Maidana expressed his disagreement with the decision in this rematch with The Champion:
"I thought I won the fight but if the judges want to give the fight to a guy who runs that’s their decision. I feel like I was the aggressor and I kept applying the pressure. He kept holding and pushing and the ref never did anything about it. Instead, the ref took a point away from me.”
Despite a controversey erupting in the 8th round when it appeared that Maidana bit Mayweather through his gloves, a charge which the challenger denied, Mayweather moves to 47-0 and continues his quest to be deemed "TBE- The Best Ever". Yet the question remains- will he fight Pacquiao? When asked this by Jim Gray, the Champ responded:
"I’m not ducking or dodging any opponent. If the Manny Pacquiao fight presents itself let’s make it happen. I don’t know who I’ll fight in May but I expect to fight. Manny needs to focus on the guy that’s in front of im. Once he gets past that task we’ll see what the future holds.”
With lots to debate, position and negotiate as we head to Mayweather's next fight in May of 2015, the Champ continues his winning streak and his claim as "TBE".
