Maidana: I did enough to win; I didn’t bite him

By Jeff Sorby - 09/14/2014 - Comments

(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp: Mayweather Promotions) Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) believes he was robbed last night in his 12 round unanimous decision loss to WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) in their rematch.

Maidana says he outworked Mayweather by throwing many more punches than him, and he forced the fight with his aggression. The only thing that Maidana feels Mayweather did well was run from him for 12 rounds. Maidana gives Mayweather full credit for his running, but that’s it. Maidana also denies biting Mayweather on the hand in the 8th round. He says that didn’t happen.

“Nobody did what I could do and I hit Floyd Mayweather with many punches,” Maidana said at the post-fight press conference last night. “I felt I did enough to win. But what can I say? If the judges like a fighter who runs like Floyd, there’s nothing I can do about it. I think he’s beatable. And when you attack him more and more, he [Mayweather] really doesn’t know what to do.”

Maidana is kind of alone on an island in thinking he won the fight last night. Even his trainer Robert Garcia wasn’t willing to make that claim in front of the media. Maidana was much less effective in this fight compared to last May in his first fight against Mayweather in which Maidana landed 221 punches.

Last night, Maidana landed 128 of 572 shots for a connect percentage of just 22%. With that kind of connect percentage, it was impossible for Maidana to have chance of winning against Mayweather. Maidana should feel fortunate that the judges scored it as close as they did in scoring it 116-111, 116-112 and 116-111, because Maidana fought well enough to win 2 rounds at the most.

Contrary to what Maidana is saying about Mayweather not knowing what to do when he was attacked last night, Mayweather looked very decisive in how he reacted to Maidana’s bull-like attacks. Mayweather was frequently moving from one side of the ring to another, jabbing, pot shotting and tying Maidana up. Mayweather didn’t look lost or flustered.

“I was able to counter him and hit him,” Maidana said. “He’s very fast on his feet, I’ll tell you that. I didn’t bite him. That didn’t happen. I know he poked me in the eye when he had his glove in my face, but I didn’t bite him.”