Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana II: Top Storylines as Showdown Looms

It's fight week in Las Vegas!

Floyd Mayweather will defend his WBC Welterweight and Junior Middleweight Championships in a rematch against Marcos Maidana on Saturday night, and we have you covered with all the big storylines as the big night approaches.

Can Mayweather turn in another vintage performance as his career winds down? Or will Maidana be able to adapt his style to make it another rough night at the office for the pound-for-pound king?

Will momentum make any difference? 

And will referee Kenny Bayless' firm style prove to be an advantage for Mayweather and a limitation for Maidana?

All that and more in this week's Mayweather vs. Maidana II edition of the hottest storylines in boxing.

Will It Be Easier for Mayweather This Time?

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This is not to say that the first fight wasn’t easy for Mayweather, but it was harder than we’ve grown accustomed to seeing for the pound-for-pound king during his career.

Mayweather seemed somewhat caught off guard by Maidana’s immediate, tornado-like rage in the opening minutes of the contest. It was as if a fight breaking out hadn’t entered into his mental calculations.

Maidana clearly took the first round, and you could easily make the case that his aggression and roughhousing gave him three of the first four.

Even Mayweather accepts that scoring.

“Just look at the fight. The fight is not close. He came out, he won the first round. I won the second round. He won the third and the fourth and from the fifth on he lost every round," he said.

For most fighters, that type of hole happens at some point in their career, and it doesn’t come as a very big surprise.

But to see Mayweather manhandled like that and lose even one round is borderline unheard of.

Once he got his bearings, after Round 5, Mayweather began to surgically pick Maidana apart from the outside. His ability to catch and shoot punches, make the Argentine miss and make him pay became the dominant story heading down the stretch run.

By the time the final bell rang, it was reasonable to have a scorecard somewhere in the range of 116-112/117-111 for Mayweather, and almost all of the controversy surrounding that had to do with people scoring their surprise and not the in-ring action.

Still, it’s a testimony to how spoiled we’ve all become when it comes to Mayweather performances that an eight-to-four or nine-to-three fight is viewed as close and/or controversial.

Having 12 rounds under his belt and being legendary for his ability to adjust and improve, Mayweather will be looking to take control of the rematch earlier and silence any doubters.

Whether he can do that remains an open question that will only be answered on fight night.

Can Maidana Change His Attack Enough for It to Matter?

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Maidana is a rough, rugged, tough SOB.

There really isn’t any other way to describe the Argentine, and you can bet he’d take that as a compliment.

Maidana, unlike many of Mayweather’s previous foes, didn’t show the pound-for-pound king much respect once the bell rang. He was on top of him, throwing punches and sprinkling in his share of illegal/borderline tactics to make the fight dramatic.

But as the fight wore on, Maidana’s attack became less effective, Mayweather began to pick him off, and the fight started to look like so many others we’ve seen in the past.

The big question for Maidana and his team is, what can they do differently this time to make sure that doesn't happen again?

Maidana and his trainer, Robert Garcia, promised a few new wrinkles during a media conference call last week, emphasizing the need for subtle changes in attack, forcing Mayweather to fight more and building up the fighter’s stamina.

“I was able to force him to stand and fight, and that had a lot to do with conditioning. The times when he decided to box is because I let him. I let him get away. I let him be able to box and move. I think I did well in forcing him to fight because of the pressure I put on,” Maidana said.

Maidana promised things would be different this time.

“This time around, I’m not going to get tired. I’m going to be on him from the opening bell, for the entire fight. And I think that’s going to force him to fight," he said.

That seems like a pretty solid goal, and it provides him the best path to winning the fight.

Doing it, however, remains to be seen.

Who Has the Momentum?

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Momentum is a tricky thing in boxing.

Some observers feel that it matters, but there’s a fair bit of debate over how much. After all, boxing is largely a talent-based game, and the cream usually rises to the top.

But it remains an interesting question heading into big fights.

There is absolutely no way that you can view the first fight between Mayweather and Maidana as anything but a successful night for the Argentine.

He didn’t get the win, but he was completely dismissed by the overwhelming majority of boxing media and fanbase—this writer included—and blew expectations out of the water.

Maidana proved that he belonged, that he could stare down a fighter as great as Mayweather and give him the type of difficulty that better, more complete fighters couldn’t.

He didn't wilt, and he put on a better showing than virtually anyone expected.

That breeds some confidence.

In many ways, Mayweather vs. Maidana was a tale of two fights.

The first half, when the Argentine’s physicality carried a few rounds; the second half, when Mayweather’s pure boxing skill allowed him to adapt and do what he does so well to secure another victory.

Both men can point to positives.

Mayweather for adapting and getting a tough, deserved win, and Maidana for proving he could hang at this level.

They both carry confidence and momentum, but Maidana could have more.

After all, it's expected of Mayweather.

Will Maidana Be Allowed to Work His Offense?

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Kenny Bayless replaces Tony Weeks as the third man in the ring on Saturday night, and he’ll have a tall task to ensure the action remains within the Queensberry Rules.

Many in the Mayweather camp were not particularly thrilled with the performance of Tony Weeks in May, feeling that the veteran referee gave Maidana too much leeway and didn’t do enough to stamp out his borderline tactics.

Mayweather, however, was willing to give Weeks the benefit of the doubt for just having an off night.

"Tony Weeks is only human. He’s capable of having a bad night. It doesn’t matter who the ref is going to be. We just want to go out there and entertain and give people an exciting fight. I’m sure Kenny Bayless will be watching both sides extremely close," he said.

Mayweather suffered the first cut of his professional career, the result of a headbutt in Round 4, and was quite agitated after the fight about Maidana’s use of headbutts, knees and rabbit punches.

He accused him of fighting like an MMA fighter, a criticism that he’s continued to lob throughout the promotion for this fight.

"This is not the MMA. This is boxing. You guys noticed. I got tackled. [Maidana] tried to knee me. I got a headbutt. I got hit with rabbit punches. I got hit with low blows, and the list goes on and on,” Mayweather said.

The question is whether the shift to Bayless is a preemptive strike against Maidana being able to employ a similar style in the upcoming rematch.

Bayless is known for being quicker on the trigger and more by the book in his approach to policing a fight than Weeks, who generally gives fighters a bit more latitude.

He’s also much more familiar with Mayweather—he’s worked his high-profile fights with Canelo Alvarez, Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya—than with Maidana.

Maidana has only worked with Bayless on one prior occasion—his fight with Jesus Soto Karass—and while he won, he was also deducted two points for hitting on the break.

That would seem to indicate that Bayless’ selection is a boon for Mayweather and a bust for Maidana, and it could provide the Argentine with difficulty harassing Floyd on the inside like the last time.

Boom or Bust on Pay-Per-View?

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Mayweather just doesn’t do ordinary.

Everything about him is big and flashy.

His style, his presence, his bank account: all large.

So when you look at his pay-per-view numbers from May, you’d have to expect that he was probably a little disappointed.

Mayweather vs. Maidana drew in an estimated 900,000 buys on PPV—nobody should be crying poverty—solid, but it was a far cry from the 2.2 million or so that the pound-for-pound king generated by fighting Canelo a little less than a year ago.

That fight also broke all sorts of boxing revenue records.

Now, like everything else, context is key.

Maidana wasn’t the marquee attraction or threatening opponent that Alvarez was, and those numbers still dwarfed those of Miguel Cotto and Sergio Martinez for their historic fight, and they came in right about what Manny Pacquiao brought in for his rematch with Timothy Bradley.

Pacquiao and Bradley, who like Mayweather and Maidana this time, were fighting in a rematch, which came in at around 890,000 buys.

Mayweather is obviously hoping to better that figure, and the controversy—much of it contrived—that lingers from the first bout is what many are hoping will push this affair over the finish line.

There’s nothing particularly compelling on the undercard—unless you really can’t get enough of Leo Santa Cruz in glorified sparring sessions—which means that Mayweather and Maidana are alone in the task of slogging this wagon up the hill to commercial success.

Kevin McRae is a featured boxing columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.