For all intents and purposes, other fighters can’t hold a candle to Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. when it comes to drawing power. However, it seems that Mayweather’s flame may be fluttering just a tad as the superstar boxer nears the tail end of his career.
Mayweather (47-0-0, 26 KO) was equal parts impressive and sleep-inducing in his easy decision victory over Marcos “El Chinco” Maidana (35-5-0, 31 KO) in their rematch. The fight carried an odd aura from the jump. Even though the first fight between the two combatants was one of Mayweather’s more entertaining scraps in quite some time, fans and boxing media appeared lukewarm on the rematch. Turns out, they were right.
After fighting off the ropes and in the pocket for much of the first fight, Mayweather reverted to a more defensive strategy the second time around. Why wouldn’t he? Maidana has shown himself to be vulnerable to boxers with good movement. Saturday night, Mayweather fought the way many expected him to fight back in May. He moved side-to-side and whenever Maidana got within punching range, Mayweather grabbed a hold of Maidana for dear life. I know it’s the start of ‘cuffing season’ but I can’t be the only one that wanted more fisticuffs and less bromance in the bout. Meanwhile referee Kenny Bayless did his best to break the clenches before Maidana the fighters had a chance to work out of the clenches by throwing actual punches.
Mayweather got hit much less than he did in the first bout, but seemed disinterested and a tad slower than usual. Maidana didn’t fight with the same vigor, heart or aggression as he did in the first bout. I thought his timid start was a calculated effort to stay fresh later in the fight. But Maidana never really dialed up the aggression. He simply followed Mayweather around the ring like a lost puppy for most of the fight.
“Maidana fought like a guy who was happy about his $3 million,” said E. Allen (aka Mr. Factoid), frequent co-host of In the Clench.
Even the hardcore, ride or day Mayweather fans at my fight party were seen dozing off various times, slobbering on their TMT hats during the lackluster fight and downright awful undercard bouts. Fans at the MGM Grand booed various times throughout the night. There were only two legitimate moments of excitement in the fight. At the end of the third round, Maidana appeared to hurt Mayweather at the end of round three with a crushing right hand. The punch was at the bell though and the pound-for-pound champ recovered well by the next round. The other interesting moment came in the 8th round when Mayweather accused Maidana of biting his hand though the glove. It was the only time in the fight that Maidana appeared hungry for the victory.
Many expect the PPV numbers to fall somewhere in the 800-900k range. That means Mayweather will have failed to draw 1 million PPV buys in three of his past four fights. The bout that did surpass one million buys was the fight was Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and its 2.2 million buys set an all-time record. Still the pattern shows that while Mayweather is king, without a true A-list opponent, he’s not always a certified PPV monster.
While I want to punch myself in the face for even suggesting it, that leaves a sliver of hope that we may finally see Mayweather vs Manny “Pac Man” Pacquiao in the squared circle. With two fights remaining on his deal with Showtime, there aren’t many fights for Mayweather that will excite the masses. Rematches with Miguel Cotto or Alvarez register shrugs. Potential opponents like Shawn Porter and Erislandy Lara have likely fallen out of contention with recent losses. Danny Garcia and Keith Thurman are not yet widely known. A fight with Amir Khan might sell in the UK, but it would be a dud in the US.
If Mayweather wants to get north of 1 million buys and get back to getting paid handsomely on the PPV upside, he’ll have to finally ‘Manny’ up and face Pacquiao. That’s assuming the Pac-Man emerges victorious in his own disappointing PPV fight with Chris Algieri. The numbers from that fight will likely be half those of Mayweather-Maidana II.
Back in July, Mayweather promised a “surprise” for his next bout in May 2015. Many suspect he’ll finally call Pacquiao’s number. If he doesn’t, don’t be surprised when nobody shows up or tunes in to watch. It’s now or never for Mayweather vs Pacquiao.
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