Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s rematch with Marcos Maidana on September 13 is fast approaching, and the rhetoric from Mayweather's camp about Maidana's physical tactics is getting louder.
Since agreeing to the rematch, Mayweather has made it a point to emphasize Maidana's roughhousing in the first fight, blaming much of that for the perceived closeness of the fight. Mayweather won by split decision in that bout, with one judge scoring it a draw and the other two awarding him comfortable margins of victory.
During their media tour stop in New York City, Mayweather said the perception that the fight was close is skewed by his past dominance, and Maidana's "dirty" fighting.
"What you guys have to realize is that I'm not just fighting the fighter, I'm fighting the critics. If a guy wins two rounds, they're like the guy beat Mayweather," Mayweather said.
When asked what Maidana did well against him, his response was curt. "Fight dirty. Fight dirty, and probably win three rounds out of 12."
Mayweather's father Floyd Sr. had reportedly advised against facing Maidana again because of those tactics, and has remained on the offensive.
"I'm gonna put him in a category of his own," Mayweather Sr. said of Maidana. "He's just low-down, dirty and crooked. And that's the category that he belongs in."
Mayweather lobbed shots at Maidana's trainer Robert Garcia too, who could be heard in the first fight advising Maidana to "be dirty."
"If you're a legendary trainer, like you say you are, you're a Hall of Fame trainer, I think it's about being fair," Mayweather said. "My dad would never, or my Uncle Roger would never, give me any bad advice as far as going out there and being dirty. That's very inappropriate, very unprofessional. Like I've said before, I know we're in a brutal sport, which is boxing, but I believe in having a career after this sport is over."
Garcia has defended Maidana and his own reputation, firing shots back at Mayweather's camp.
"I don't like the way that Floyd talks about my fighter," Garcia said. "On the media tour, he was telling everyone that my fighter fights like an MMA fighter and was constantly disrespecting him. I didn't appreciate that."
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