In the first seven rounds of Saturday night’s fight, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was clearly ahead on points, so by round eight, Marcos Maidana showed his frustration as he appeared to take a bite at Mayweather’s left hand as they were tangled in a clinch. Mayweather let out a loud yelp as he spewed profanities in agony while he complained to boxing referee Kenny Bayless that he and been bitten.
Bayless then stopped the fight and separated the fighters, and issued a warning to Maidana’s corner even though he admitted that he didn’t get a good look at the incident.
Throughout his career, Chino (as he’s nicknamed) Maidana has earned a reputation as a dirty fighter, and upon seeing the replay, it definitely looked like he tried to bite Mayweather’s left hand even though he was obviously wearing a mouthguard. To confirm that he was having a bad night, Maidana pushed Mayweather down to the ground in round 10, and Bayless deducted one point from Maidana as he attempted to keep the fight clean.
In the end, Mayweather was awarded with a typical unanimous decision by the scores of 116-111, 116-111 and 115-112 for an easy night’s work, but he didn’t come away without any blemishes. Maidana bloodied Mayweather’s lip, and there was also a visible cut on the right cheek of Mayweather. However, he certainly won the fight in a far more convincing fashion than their first bout back in May.
After the fight, Chino and his trainer Robert Garcia denied any biting on their part as they joked that Maidana is not a dog who bites people.
Now that Mayweather has silenced his critics who said that he would surely lose the rematch, what’s next for Floyd? Showtime boxing broadcaster Jim Gray proposed the age-old question that Mayweather should consider fighting Manny Pacquiao in May of next year. At this point, Mayweather has truly run out of guys to beat. Nobody wants to see Mayweather pummel Amir Khan, who would just be a big pay-per-view attraction to whatever’s left of the U.K. audience that still follows this unimpressive fighter.
Floyd claims that he’s not ducking and dodging any opponent, but if he really plans to retire one year from now, he only has two fights left. Mayweather-Pacquiao I and II in 2015 would surely blow away the snore-fest that Mayweather-Maidana I and II gave us in 2014.
No more speculation, no more getting our hopes up; it’s truly now or never.
Walton Yeboah-Amoako is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @WaltYeboah, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
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