Maidana had a big lead in the early rounds through his constant aggression. But Mayweather won five of the last seven rounds on two scorecards and six of seven on a third to pull out the win by a narrow margin.
”I couldn’t see for two rounds after the head butt,” Mayweather said. ”After I could see again it didn’t both me. That’s what champions do, they survive and adjust.”
Maidana had said before the fight he was going to treat Mayweather like any other fighter and go right after him. He did just that, bringing the sellout crowd at the MGM Grand hotel to its feet as he landed some big overhand right hands to the top of Mayweather’s head.
”He never hurt me with a punch,” Maidana said. ”He wasn’t that tough, I thought I won.”
Maidana complained about being forced to fight with gloves he didn’t want to use when the two camps engaged in a standoff over gloves at the rules meeting a day earlier.
”If I would have had my gloves I would have knocked him out,” Maidana said. ”They took away my advantage.”