Robert Garcia: Mayweather is tipping off the referee by complaining about Maidana being a dirty fighter

By Boxing News - 07/24/2014 - Comments

maidana45By Chris Williams: Trainer Robert Garcia is upset the way that WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) has been calling his fighter Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) a dirty MMA type fighter during his interviews and press conferences for their September 13th rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Garcia thinks that by Mayweather constantly bad mouthing Maidana’s physical style of fighting, he’s tipping off whoever the referee and judges will be for the fight to watch what Maidana is doing and not give him credit.

Garcia says he’s going to talk to the referee before the fight and tell him that’s how Maidana fights, and ask him to let him use those tactics for the fight. Garcia also says that Mayweather does illegal stuff with his elbows by sticking them out and by pushing off with his forearm, so he’s not a clean fighter either.

“Maidana didn’t get any tough warnings [for his previous fight with Mayweather], it wasn’t that dirty,” Garcia said to Radio Raheem. “There was no points taken off. But that’s how he fights. But for him [Mayweather to talk about it every time he’s on the microphone, he’s pretty much warning whoever the referee is going to be, whoever the judges are going to be. The whole world is watching the press conferences and all his interviews. So he’s already warning whoever the refs going to be, ‘Oh, he’s a dirty fighter, he’s an MMA fighter.’ He’s [Mayweather] smart, he’s a businessman. Once we know who the referee is and we talk to him, and I’m going to tell him that’s [fighting rough] our chance, that’s the way we fight, give us a break; don’t take that chance away from us.”

So, Garcia is going to try and convince the referee, whoever that is, that he should give Maidana a free pass for the fouling that he does against Mayweather? I’m really surprised that Garcia is even talking about this in an interview, because it doesn’t show him in the best light.

Garcia is probably right about Mayweather tipping off the referee and judges for the fight with his talking about Maidana’s fouling. Mayweather really shouldn’t have been in the position to do this in the first place if the referee that worked their previous fight, Tony Weeks, had done a better job of controlling the fouling that Maidana did.

If Weeks had stepped in and taken points away from Maidana for his low blows, head-butting and rabbit punches, Maidana likely would have stopped fouling sooner or later. You can make an argument that Maidana should have lost 3-5 points, possibly more, due to the fouling that he did last May. But if Weeks had started taking points off early, then Maidana might have changed his fighting style and kept it clean the rest of the way.

Mayweather then wouldn’t be talking about Maidana now by calling him a dirty fighter. So you’ve got to blame the referee for their previous fight, and Maidana as well for how he fought. If Mayweather were to be silent about the fouling, it would be a sign that he was okay with what Maidana did against him in their first fight.

This in turn might lead a referee working their rematch to turn a blind eye to Maidana’s fouling for that fight as well. Mayweather wasn’t going to do this, because he needs the referee to do his actual job in the ring by controlling the fouling.

Mayweather doesn’t want to end up being kneed or rabbit punched into submission on September 13th. With the way that Maidana was fouling last time, without having points taken off, you have to wonder if he would have had his hand raised if he knocked Mayweather out with a rabbit punch.



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