Floyd Mayweather Won a Tough Majority Decision to Go to 46-0
Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana face one another in a welterweight unification bout this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. After his victory over previously unbeaten Canello Alvarez in September, the 45-0 Mayweather comes into the fight as a large favorite to unify the welterweight division. The average odds for a Marcos Maidana victory are 12 to 1, which makes Maidana one of the biggest underdogs in a Mayweather fight in ten years.
That says a lot about the current mood of the betting public. Floyd Mayweather is widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and has owned that title for several years. With a perfect record and the chance to finish his career 50-0, which would surpass Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record among major title holders. Mayweather has back-to-back been the highest-paid athlete in the world, while his legion of fans consider him a candidate for Greatest of All Time.
Odds and Moneyline Bets
Taking a look at a typical online sportsbook, Bovada installed Mayweather as a 1 to 11 favorite, while Maidana came in as a 13 to 2 underdog. If one wants to look at the moneyline bets, Mayweather sits at -1100, while Marcos Maidana has a +650 moneyline figure. A gambler would need to wager $1,100 to win $100 on Mayweather (a steep amount), while they could wager $100 to win $650, if Maidana won. Seldom is a moneyline wager so stark, when a world title holder is the underdog.
Marcos Maidana Scouting Report
Maidana is given little chance to win because he comes in with a reputation as a brawler. Most of Mayweather’s recent opponents have either boasted a big knockout punch or a combination of power and skill. In each case, Mayweather’s defense and speed have proven too much for his challengers, as his counter-punching style wore the opponents down and left them frustrated. An unorthodox brawler without the speed to catch Maymeather might play into his counterpunching style, because the brawler is likely to be out of position when the retaliatory punches come.
An old saying in boxing says “Styles Make Fights”. Boxing experts sometimes assume there are three styles of fighter. One is a “boxer”, a term for a fighter with a combination of hand and foot speed, as well as skill. The second is a “puncher”, a dangerous fighter who wins by knocking out their opponent with overwhelming power. The third style is the “brawler”, a fighter who might not have the speed or power of the other two, but prefers to get on the inside and chop away at an opponent with short blows that wear down an opponent over 12 rounds. Brawlers build their reputation on a combination of toughness, guile, and stamina.
In conventional boxing logic, a boxer defeats a puncher, a puncher defeats a brawler, and a brawler defeats a boxer. If so, then Marcos Maidana might have a better chance of defeating Mayweather than many of the knockout artists the champion has faced in recent fights.
Fights on the Undercard
The undercard has three fights of note. The main undercard fight has Amir Khan facing Luis Collazo. If Amir Khan wins, he might be Mayweather’s next opponent. Mayweather is likely to fight in September again, though Amir Khan prefers not to train in July, due to his observance of Ramadan. This might make a September match unlikely.
In another undercard match Adrien Broner will fight Carlos Molina. Adrien Broner is a friend of Mayweather’s and therefore fights on his undercards often. The third undercard match has up-and-comer J’Leon Love boxing against Marco Antonio Periban.
One reason Floyd Mayweather is the highest-paid athlete in the world is he promotes his own fights. For that reason, he pockets a much larger part of the pay-per-view purse than other boxers, because he is not paying someone like Don King or Bob Arum to promote the fight. Therefore, the entire fight card is being promoted by
Updated Mayweather-Maidana Fight Results
Marcos Maidana proved to be a tougher challenger than all the experts assumed. The Argentine brawler was aggressive throughout the match, as he came forward and attempted to trap Mayweather on the ropes for 12 rounds. His wild swinging style gave Mayweather trouble when more polished, orthodox boxers failed to penetrate his defense.
The results were the same, as Mayweather won a majority decision. One judge had the fight 117-111 in Mayweather’s favor. A second judge scored the fight 116-112 for Mayweather. A third judge scored the fight a 114-114 draw. Most observers, including former trainer Teddy Atlas, consider the 114-114 score to be an outlier. Floyd Mayweather landed slightly more punched (230 to 221), but he was thought to have landed the cleaner blows and had a 53% hit percentage. Maidana contends he should have won the match, because he was more active (more than 300 punches thrown) and landed the same number of blows.
These former stats may stoke enough interest in a rematch that the two boxers could fight again this year. Many fans and fight analysts already consider this the toughest test Floyd Mayweather has faced, and some are already calling for a rematch. Detractors of Mayweather say the fight shows he is slowing down, because he was unable or unwilling to box and stay off the ropes. For his part, Floyd Mayweather says he was trying to give fans what they want.
