By Peter Wells
Mayweather beats Maidana in arguably toughest fight of his career
It could have been easy for Floyd Mayweather to start taking winning for granted after several one-sided match-ups, but he would not be afforded the luxury of a sweep against the tough Argentine Marcos Maidana.
In arguably his toughest fight of his 46-0(26) career, Mayweather came through with a Majority decision win.
Maidana showed Floyd no respect for the entire bout – and sadly seemed to show his conqueror no respect after the contest either. He was all over Floyd like a rash early in the fight, swarming him on the ropes, unleashing right hand haymakers as Floyd tried desperately to avoid too much punishment while practicing the rope-a-dope.
While Maidana was aggressive and very rarely let Mayweather off the hook, on the outside Floyd’s genius shone as he rarely failed to find the target with the right cross. Floyd was connecting more, and dominating the majority of most of the rounds, but Maidana’s spurts in the early sessions were what gave him an early lead.
To his credit Mayweather never looked in serious danger, while the always durable Maidana never flinched in the opening rounds as Floyd tagged him on the way in. Mayweather looked for the centre ring, where Maidana’s success was limited to say the least.
In the second half of the contest, the skills of ‘Money’ began to shine through as Maidana’s work rate dropped. Floyd put combinations together – which is credit to the pressure Maidana brought, as it forced Mayweather far out of his comfort zone. Ultimately though those combinations were helping Floyd stack up the rounds, as the pound-for-pound king began to draw out a lead.
Maidana’s effectiveness on the ropes was not the same as we entered the final 5 rounds, he was more inclined to lean on Floyd than work tirelessly as he had done in the opening 6 sessions.
Many had wondered whether Mayweather could move out of first gear, and we saw exactly that as he was forced to dig deep, cut over his right eye, Floyd needed all the ‘hard work and dedication’ he could muster.
Mayweather continued to pick away at Maidana in the championship rounds, stinging the Argentine several times with hard right crosses.
At the final bell both fighters celebrated, but while Maidana had the right to celebrate a great performance, in all fairness it looked as though there was only one winner. Floyd’s class shone through and he was rightly crowned the unified WBA and WBC Welterweight champion.
The official scorecards read, 114-114, 117-111 and 116-112. Maidana dropped to 35-4(31), as a rematch could be very likely after both fighters seemed up for the challenge.
But the idea of a rematch is not going to be to everyone’s liking. With a possible Mayweather showdown looming, Amir Khan 29-3(19) made no mistake with a stunning 12 round points victory over tough man Luis Collazo 35-6(18).
Khan vs Collazo
Khan boxed to a tee for 12 rounds, dropping Collazo three times on route to a one-sided victory. Khan moved behind fast double and triple jabs, combined with the lead right against the southpaw opponent.
Collazo was tough throughout but clearly relied on his power and strength too much, but never got close enough to Khan to cause any effect.
Collazo hit the canvas in the 4th as he walked onto a lovely right cross, and Khan only gained confidence from there on. Collazo’s frustration grew as he threw two low blows in successive rounds, prompting a point deduction in the 8th, before Khan was deducted a point himself for holding. The referee certainly earned his money’s worth as Khan pushed Collazo’s head down while Collazo came in with his head low – more often than not it was six of one, half of dozen of the other.
Khan was wobbled once in the fight, but he took it well and went on to floor Collazo twice more in the 10th, a perfectly placed body shot followed by a combination culminating in a solid right cross. Collazo tumbled down the second time and his frustration showed as he allowed Khan to work him over on the ropes for the rest of the session.
Collazo was game, but Khan was excellent, boxing to the gameplan and staying out of danger for 12 rounds.
The scorecards read at the end of a wild fight; 117-106 and 119-104 (twice) all for Amir Khan.
Adrien Broner 28-1(22) put his career back on the right tracks with a near shut-out points win over Carlos Molina 17-2-1(7) in a Light Welterweight 10 rounder.
Broner vs Molina
Broner struggled to find a suited rhythm early on, as Molina was happy in the underdog role, throwing big haymakers over Broner’s attempted shoulder-roll. Broner soon came through the momentary rough patch – where he could well have still won all of the first three rounds that Molina was competitive in – and dominated from round 4 thru 10.
Broner was on the front foot, sitting on his combinations as Molina struggled to keep with the power of Broner, although he fought gamely to the final bell, but never had enough in his arsenal to worry ‘The Problem’.
Official scorecards read 99-91, 98-92 and 100-90 all for Adrien Broner.
Love vs Periban
In the opening bout of the Pay-Per-View card, J’Leon Love 18-0(10) impressed the boss as he outscored Marco Antonio Periban 20-2-1(13) in a 10 round Super Middleweight fight.
Love made his way off the canvas to secure a well-fought win, but Periban who possibly gassed out in the 5th never offered a threat the rest of the way, as Love cruised to victory.
In the opening 4 rounds Love boxed behind a solid jab against the bigger Periban who put the American under constant pressure. In the 5th the Mexican’s pressure paid off as he nailed Love, but J’Leon managed to sway away from enough punches to survive the round, conceding only one knockdown when it could have been far worse.
Periban seemed to put everything into that round and he came out with nowhere near the same vigour in the next. Love boxed expertly and did what he had to, steering from danger while snapping away with a fine jab and left hooks with the odd right cross.
The official scorecards were 95-93, 97-92 and 96-93 all for J’Leon Love who was more than good value for the best win of his career thus far, despite Periban’s humorous attempts at looking shocked about the result.
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