I want to thank everybody who came to Las Vegas to support this event! pic.twitter.com/OYGBdiWGwQ
— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) May 4, 2014
By Chris Williams: WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) took time out from his busy schedule to give thanks to the thousands of fans who came out to Las Vegas, Nevada to give him support in his unification fight against WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) at the MGM Grand. Mayweather is very appreciative of his fans who made themselves heard during the fight and helped him grind out a 12 round majority decision victory over Maidana.
Mayweather said on his twitter, “I just wanted to say thanks and I appreciate you all! I also want to thank everybody who bought pay-per-view… I love you all ! without you all, I wouldn’t be where I’m at today.”
Mayweather fought Maidana’s fight by electing to stand in front of him and punch with him for 12 rounds instead of boxing him and easily beating him like he could have. Mayweather is getting a lot of stick from fans for him purposefully giving Maidana a handicap by fighting his fight instead of boxing him. It’s one of those situations where Mayweather is ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ for his decision to punch with Maidana.
If Mayweather had ignored his own decision to punch with Maidana, he would have beaten him by a lopsided 12 round decision without Maidana winning one round, and boxing fans would be likely skewering Mayweather today for facing such an over-matched opponent. The fact of the matter is that every opponent in the welterweight division is over-matched against Mayweather. That’s why he has to fight junior middleweights in order to find more competitive opponents.
“I think everybody’s just used to seeing me outbox guys and beat guys and guys not winning one round,” Mayweather said via Mlive.com. “If I’m in a competitive fight, people are like, ‘Damn, what’s going on with Floyd?’ Then, I beat a guy 8 rounds, and they’re like, ‘That’s a boring fight.'”
That’s the situation Mayweather is with boxing fans. He’s going to get nailed no matter what he does with his opponents. However, Mayweather did make the right decision in choosing to stand in front of Maidana, because the fight turned out to be very exciting, and he made it a good fight for the casual boxing fans. The hardcore fans likely weren’t happy though, but this was for the casual fans who count the most when it comes to pay-per-view buys and live gate attendance.
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