LAS VEGAS — The only change Marcos "Chino" Maidana hopes to make in his rematch with Floyd "Money" Mayweather Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena is to finish the second fight the way he started the first one.
The underdog Argentinian gets a rare second chance to be the first to defeat Mayweather thanks mainly to the competitive performance he displayed in their first 12-round clash in May. Using a rugged style, Maidana won most of the early rounds and had the fight even after eight. But Mayweather won three of the final four rounds on each of the judges' scorecards to earn a majority decision and retain the welterweight and super welterweight titles that will again be on the line Saturday night on Showtime pay-per-view.
"The first half of the fight was good," said Maidana's trainer, Robert Garcia. "The second half we faded a little. We're going to have to look to maintain that rhythm for all 12 rounds."
It's a simplistic approach that figures to be more difficult to execute than in the first fight. Maidana may have caught Mayweather off-guard with his roughhouse tactics that featured wild punches, low blows, elbows and even a knee to the groin. But over the final third of the fight, Mayweather began scoring with his jab and combinations while Maidana, who ballooned from 147 to 165 after the weigh-in, found it more and more difficult to trap the pound-for-pound king.
In the end one judge scored it a 114-114 draw, while the two other judges favored Mayweather 117-111 and 116-112. The Post had it for Mayweather, 115-113.
"I don't know who has the advantage in the rematch," Mayweather said. "I know I'm sharp. I know he's sharp. I was able to make the adjustments in the first fight and we'll see if he can make the adjustments this time."
Kenny Bayless has been assigned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission to referee the bout and will have a large say in how physical Maidana can be. Garcia's concern is Mayweather has complained so much over Maidana's antics in the first bout that he won't be allowed to fight his style.
"He's dirty and he's rough. But that's the way Maidana fights," Garcia said. "The ref shouldn't take away Maidana's opportunity to win a fight. He's not the first one to throw punches from different angles. That's not fighting dirty. That's just the way Maidana fights."
Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) spent much of the first fight on the ropes, making it easy for Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) to bully him. Many expect Mayweather to be more elusive in the rematch. The question is whether his 37-year-old legs can still move for 12 rounds like they once did. He looked in tremendous shape weighing in at 146.5 pounds on Friday to Maidana's 146.
"He's not a runner," Garcia said of Mayweather. "A lot of people think that he's going to be running. He's not running. He fights smart. He's very defensive. It's going to be a great fight where we end up doing what we were doing the first half of the first half."
Any animosity between the two fighters has been manufactured for the cameras. In truth, Maidana is grateful to be the first fighter to get a rematch with Mayweather since Jose Luis Castillo nearly 12 years ago.
"The fact that we're in front of Mayweather for a second time in the same year, that's really huge," Garcia said. "You don't see that often with Mayweather. That tells us that we did our job the first time and earned our position."
Prediction
The guess here is Mayweather learned enough from the first fight to pick up where he left off. It will be rough and sometimes ugly, but Mayweather's legs and fists are still fast enough to control the fight. Mayweather by decision.
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