Mayweather vs. Maidana 2 Results: Recapping Money's Most Dominant Rounds in Win
It wasn't a start-to-finish victory for Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his riveting rematch victory over Marcos Maidana, but a handful of crucial rounds helped to swing the momentum convincingly in his favor.
Money May scheduled a second bout with Maidana after a majority-decision victory the first time around, but he left no doubters after 12 rounds Saturday night in Las Vegas' MGM Grand. Much like the 46 others who have stepped into the ring with the undefeated champion, Maidana left a beaten man.
Anyone who has watched Mayweather fight knows he owns a unique style, outlasting his opponents with insanely quick movement and countering with lightning-fast jabs and punches. But there's no doubt that it worked for him during many key moments in Saturday's rematch.
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Let's break those rounds down below.
Round 5
Through the opening few rounds of Saturday's fight, it was shaping up to be much like Mayweather's typical fight—starting slow and trying to let his opponent wear himself down.
Maidana's aggression took a toll on Mayweather, allowing the huge underdog to seemingly split the opening four rounds of the fight. But when Round 5 came, Mayweather started setting his tone for the latter rounds.
Money established himself with his powerful counters and moved Maidana into the center of the ring to avoid getting put on the ropes again by his aggressive foe. He landed right after right on Maidana, and it began to show that the Argentine's early-round aggression had taken its toll.
As Showtime Stats points out, Round 5 was when Mayweather began pulling away on the scorecard:
Kaunda Ntunja noted the tide shifted after the fifth round:
Many of Mayweather's recent opponents have been high-energy guys who attempt to throw the kitchen sink at him early on, and that just allows for Money May to get into his groove.
Time and time again, he's shown that all it takes is one momentum-changing round in the middle of the fight to change the rhetoric completely.
Round 9
It wouldn't be a Floyd Mayweather fight without some bit of controversy, and Saturday night offered that and then some.
In the eighth round, Mayweather and Maidana got tangled up with Mayweather's glove near his opponent's head. Then, Mayweather claimed Maidana bit his hand as ESPN SportsCenter captured after the fight:
The referee never made any sort of ruling on it despite stopping the fight for a few seconds, but the roughness continued on into the ninth round. Mayweather was seemingly ignited from the incident and came out more aggressive than he had been throughout the early parts of the fight.
Maidana, as he's known to do, answered back with his own burst of energy. But Mayweather ducked his every attempt to put him on the ropes and inflict damage.
Round 9 was when you could start writing the big No. 47 next to Mayweather's name in permanent ink.
Round 10
Everyone in MGM Grand knew heading into Round 10 that it was Mayweather's fight to lose. Even Marcos Maidana.
Seemingly invigorated by the fact that he was a couple of rounds from defeat, Maidana came out with his most energy of the entire fight—and that's saying something, considering his energy level from start to finish.
It didn't particularly please Mayweather, per ESPN's Dave Tuley:
Although unnerved, he shook it off. Mayweather's opponent spending that kind of energy allows him to play in his best style, which is retreating with his unbelievable footwork and countering when his foe is winded from swinging and missing.
By the 10th round, Money had little reason to overwork himself but simply took what was there. And that was more than enough to set the stage for his eventual unanimous-decision win.
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