Mayweather: Cotto and Canelo hit harder than Maidana

By Boxing News - 05/04/2014 - Comments

floyd0000By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) did a good job of beating Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) by standing and trading shots last Saturday night to earn a tough 12 round majority decision in their Showtime pay-per-view televised fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. But after the fight, Mayweather had less than glowing words to say about the hard hitting Argentinian fighter.

Mayweather compared Maidana to a WWE professional wrestler at the post-fight press conference, and said that he had done a good job of kneeing him and holding and hitting. Mayweather also said that his previous opponents Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez hitter harder and were tougher than Maidana.

“Miguel Cotto was a tougher fighter and he hit harder,” Mayweather said. “Canelo hit harder than him…I could have made this fight absolutely easy but it would have been boring, and I didn’t want to do that for the fans. These fans are paying serious money to come out here and support boxing. He was the guy who was holding me with one hand and hitting me with another; he was the guy who was trying to knee me. I thought I was a boxer and he was a WWE wrestler.”

Maidana couldn’t understand everything Mayweather said, but he understood enough to get upset and say “Enough words, just give me the [expletive] rematch.”

Mayweather then said “We can make it happen right now. Bring the ring back up.” At first, it seemed like Mayweather was serious about wanting to fight Maidana again, but then he started smiling and that tipped people off that he was just messing around.

Moments later, Mayweather showed his respect for Maidana and gave him some kind words, and things were quickly back to normal with both fighters showing respect.

Mayweather didn’t seem to be too happy with his own performance because he realized that this wasn’t one of his normal fights where he dominates his opponents. Maidana landed over 200 punches in the fight, and that was one of the highest amount of shots that Mayweather had ever been hit with in a fight. Mayweather made it easy for Maidana by backing up against the ropes and looking to counter punch him. It worked at times for Mayweather, but mostly he was getting clubbed to the body and head. Mayweather did a great job of covering up to block shots, but he was still hit with far too many punches.

The fight could have been different had Mayweather used his normal fighting style of being elusive, but he decided he wanted to fight Maidana’s fight and he stuck with that plan for the entire fight regardless of the fact that it made the fight closer. Mayweather said he fought that way to make it more interesting for fans. Mayweather was right. He did make it more interesting for boxing fans because the fight was competitive, and there seems to be interest from fans in seeing a rematch between the two of them. At this point Mayweather doesn’t have a lot of options for his next fight in September, so a Maidana rematch is a good option.



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