Floyd Mayweather becomes unified WBC and WBA welterweight champion but is given one of the toughest tests of his professional career in a majority decision victory
Floyd Mayweather survived an epic, torrid encounter with Marcos Maidana to claim a majority decision victory, before agreeing to a rematch - though there are strong indications that Father Time is finally catching up with the 37 year-old.
The denouement to the event was marred by a terrifying crush of spectators when a temporary partition wall collapsed outside the Grand Garden Arena media room with 24 people left injured.
As fans tried to leave the arena through a crowded, bottleneck passageway and into the main casino, a "stampede" of people caused mayhem for several minutes. A hundred or so spectators escaped the crush through the media room doors.Poleski confirmed that a stampede-like crowd motion had taken place, sparked by fans mistaking a loud noise for a gunshot.
"What happened was a temporary wall had fallen over and it made a loud bang and people assumed that shots were fired, so they started stampeding," Poleski told Yahoo Sports.
Back in the media room 30 minutes later, Mayweather agreed to a rematch, shaking hands with Maidana's trainer Robert Diaz, claiming that he had deliberately taken part in a close quarters contest.
"If he thinks he won, we can do it again in September, absolutely we can," said Mayweather, who claimed the WBA belt to add to the WBC crown he already held.
"It was a tough, competitive fight. I normally like to go out there and box and move. But he put pressure on me. I wanted to give the fans what they wanted to see so I stood and fought him. But like a champion, I was able to make adjustments."
The official attendance for the fight was 16,268, a sell-out, and the $15 million gate was the fourth-largest in the history of fights in Las Vegas. The event is expected to have sold more than 1 million pay-per-views in American households.
Maidana gave Mayweather one of the toughest examinations of his 18-year, undefeated professional career, bullied as he was for extended periods of the fight; and yet Mayweather, often forced onto the ropes, was still brilliant in defence.
He is not regarded as the world's best pound-for-pound fighter for nothing, and retained his unbeaten record, going to 46-0.
Maidana swarmed boxing's No 1 prize fighter from the opening bell, but Mayweather surged back in the middle rounds, landing the cleaner shots to earn victory on two judges' cards, by 117-111 and 116-112. The third judge had the contest even at 114-114.
I had it 7-4 to Mayweather with one drawn, early in the piece, to return 116-113. From the sixth to the 11th rounds, we witnessed Mayweather soaking up punishment, avoiding the worst of it, and replying with brilliant counters.
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