Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET on pay-per-view Floyd Mayweather Jr., the pound-for-pound champion of boxing, will defend his WBC and WBA belts for a second time against Marcos "El Chino" Maidana, who gave Mayweather one of his toughest fights in years in May. Fans can watch the fights online by clicking this link.
As the promotion for this fight went on, anytime Mayweather wasn't defending his literacy or fending off questions about his past domestic abuse, he was accusing Maidana of fighting dirty when they squared off in May.
"Fight dirty. Fight dirty, and probably win three rounds out of 12," Mayweather said at a New York press conference to promote this "Mayhem" pay-per-view. He also disputed the closeness of his majority decision victory over Maidana, claiming that anytime an opponent has a small modicum of success against him, it becomes overblown.
"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."
He has also frequently likened Maidana to a mixed martial artist rather than a boxer, an accusation that has irked Maidana's trainer Robert Garcia.
"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."
The two fighters have been relatively civil to one another when face-to-face, and Mayweather's praised Maidana as a "tough competitor" on multiple occasions. But the rhetoric regarding tactics has been louder, and boxing observers shouldn't expect El Chino to be any less physical than he had been in May.
Prediction: Floyd Mayweather def. Marcos Maidana (UD)
Undercard Predictions
Leo Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KO) def. Manuel Roman (TKO 8)
Mickey Bey (20-1-1, 10 KO) def. Miguel Vazquez (SD)
Alfredo Angulo (22-4-0, 18 KO) def. James De La Rosa (TKO 4)
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