Floyd Mayweather Jr. had a lot to say at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, New York City during his five-city press tour along with Marcos Maidana to promote their September 13 rematch, billed as "Mayhem." While much of the talk concerned how Mayweather planned to deal with Maidana's roughhouse tactics, Floyd also addressed the difficulty he has at this stage of his career impressing the public with his wins.
In Mayweather's last two fights, vs. Canelo Alvarez and Maidana, he won by majority decision because in each fight one judge scored it a draw. The draw against Maidana was more understandable than the Alvarez call--Mayweather clearly routed Canelo in that fight--but Floyd insists his bout vs. Maidana shouldn't have been close at all.
Maidana says public pressured Mayweather into second fight
"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. Things happen this is the sport of boxing," Mayweather said.
Leonard Ellerbe, who runs Mayweather Promotions, also chimed in and questioned how high up in weight must Mayweather must move to please boxing fans.
"If you really pay close attention Floyd walks around at his fighting weight.
With the exception of the Marquez fight, I cant think of one fighter that Floyd has been in there with, definitely in the last seven, eight years, that hadn't outweighed Floyd by 18 to 23 pounds on fight night. So not only is he fighting at welterweight, on fight night he's fighting a super middleweight," Ellerbe said.
Gloves a non-issue for "Mayhem" Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana rematch?
"So every time he goes out there and puts on a great performance, he's fighting guys much bigger than he is. It absolutely makes no sense. You want him to get in there and fight a heavyweight? I think that would be the only thing to satisfy a lot of the fans."
One way Mayweather could appease the masses is to finally face Manny Pacquiao, who is scheduled to fight Chris Algieri in China on November 22. Differences between Mayweather and Top Rank CEO Bob Arum have prevented this matchup from happening previously, and by Floyd's own admission will continue to hinder its progress. Mayweather says that this fight with Maidana is in fact what fans have clamored for though.
"Just want to give the fans what they want to see. If the fans want it again why not?" Mayweather asked. Maidana agreed that this is a fight that the boxing public demanded.
"I think that I got the rematch because of a little bit of pressure from the public. They pressured him into giving me the rematch. I think that was a big factor."
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