Preview: Floyd Mayweather vs Marcos Maidana 2
LAS VEGAS, Nev.—Last night during an epic run at the 2-5 No Limit game at the MGM Grand, I noticed the top chip on my green stack still read “Mayweather Cotto 2012”. It felt apt.
The Strip had the feel of a Big Fight weekend last night, but just barely. Even the hundreds of women in skintight dresses snaking through the lobby in the absurd line for Hakkasan seemed like they were just going through the motions. On flights, at the weigh-in, and in the casinos, the crowd seemed dutiful, as if they were doing as they were told.
The energy that pulsed here last autumn during Mayweather-Alvarez is just not there. This fight and its result is a foregone conclusion, and most of us are just here to bear witness to a footnote to boxing history. Tonight could be one of the last moments where the world’s eye will be trained on the Sweet Science.
Photo by Esther Lin for Showtime
Of the two men in the main event, Marcos Maidana has everything to gain and nothing to lose. He has an opportunity to shock the world, and etch his name in history the way Buster Douglas and Boise State have before. He is a formidable underdog, but it would be foolish to underestimate him.
Floyd Mayweather is foolish in many respects, but inside the ring, he is the sage of his pugilistic generation. There are many faults one can find with Floyd, chief among them his sordid relationship with domestic violence, but one cannot accuse him of taking his profession lightly.
These are the last days of big-time boxing, and they will happen on Showtime and at the MGM Grand. Floyd Mayweather will be the star, and in truth, the opponent hardly matters. Maidana has a puncher’s chance, but only that. If this fight goes the full 12 rounds, or Maidana fails to connect on the perfect overhand right, expect fans to cash in those Mayweather betting slips, which pay a paltry 7 to 1.[[MORE]]
I typically don’t gamble when covering fights, but yesterday I couldn’t lose. It was intoxicating. I sat there for hours, taking a break only for dinner, as again and again, the cards fell in my favor. Every call was right, almost every move the right one, even when ill-advised. I can only imagine what it must feel like to be Floyd Mayweather, all but unconquerable in your chosen craft.
Such is life for Mayweather: his supremacy is so absolute, he can do, say and demand things that no one else would, and end up coming out ahead nonetheless. “Money” Mayweather will get a piece everything sold this weekend with his name on it. A portion of every drink, T-shirt and Pay Per View buy will flow back into his pockets, to be spent on shoes, exotic cars, vacations for his sizable entourage, or at the sports book, as Mayweather is fond of documenting on social media.
“I’m black so you know I’m picking Mayweather,” exclaimed a boisterous and portly man from Connecticut seated at the table directly behind me.
That was pretty much the sentiment throughout the MGM Grand, where I saw many boxers but few of the celebrities that normally pack Mayweather fights. I’m sure they will arrive tomorrow night, in time to be seen on the Pay Per View cameras and at the more exclusive after-parties, the ones not advertised on placards strewn across Las Vegas Blvd.
Few seem excited for the fight itself. The small but dogged contingent of Argentinean fans managed to look and sound the part, with their chants and flag-waving. But even they didn’t seem too convinced of a result.
“Chino Maidana! Exclaimed an eccentric and elderly Argentine named Miguel seated to my left. “But he will have trouble I think.”
This rematch has been sold largely on the intrigue of the first fight, which saw Mayweather thoroughly out-worked by Maidana and cut for the first time in his storied career. It was one of Floyd’s closest fights in recent years, and rougher than the Grand Rapids man would prefer. It was also scored a draw by Michael Pernick, a judge with a history of scoring big title fights differently than his colleagues.
Still, as Sarah recounted poetically, Mayweather solved Maidana over the later rounds, and I saw nothing to suggest that a rematch wouldn’t be more of the same.
Yet here I am, like many fans, mostly because of what Mayweather has done in the past. He is unquestionably the top draw in boxing, and if a rematch with Maidana is the best of many less-than-scintillating options, then the fault is as much with the competition as with the champion.
Yes, Manny Pacquiao remains, but personally I don’t think the result would be much different if the dynamic Filipino were in the ring against Floyd, and I still haven’t given up hope that the fight will happen. Mayweather has promised us two more outings next year before he hangs up his gloves. Stopping Pacquiao in his coda would give him a chance to be rated alongside the true all-time greats.
Mayweather is the only boxer left that can command the world’s attention. I have serious doubt that another will ever rise to the same profile, at least here in the U.S. The sport’s decline is well documented, and another golden age of heavyweights doesn’t appear to be on the horizon. Boxing will always remain, but fewer and fewer will be paying attention.
Should he pull the upset tonight, Maidana has a chance to go down in history, while everyone still cares. That alone is reason to watch tonight.
See you at the fights. Follow @StiffJab and @gnagesh for updates.