Mayweather slams Maidana’s last tactics ahead of rematch

With Floyd Mayweather Jr set to return to the ring for a rematch with Marco Maidana, the American fighter has blasted his opponent’s trainer Robert Garcia for telling Maidana to fight dirty in their first bout.

“My team didn’t know that Robert Garcia was going to tell his guy to go out there and be extremely dirty,” Mayweather said, who is odds-on at 1/8.

“My health is more important than money or anything else. I have to be healthy to go out there and perform the way that I do, and I truly believe in having a career after the sport of boxing is over. I said this before in some of my past interviews, this is not the Internet, this is boxing.”

Mayweather went on to describe the nature of the fight from his perspective, outlining how he attempted to play the role of adjudicator against Maidana, who is 5/1 this time round.

“If you guys notice, I got tackled, the guy tried to knee me, I got a head-butt, and there were rabbit punches, and there were low blows, and the list goes on and on. That night I had to do two jobs; I had to be the boxer and referee, so I had to do two jobs.

“He’s supposed to be one of the best trainers in the sport, but I think it’s totally disrespectful to the sport of boxing for a trainer to be telling the guy to be dirty.

“I don’t think it’s cool at all.”

Despite this, Mayweather is still expecting Maidana to apply a similar style when the two meet in the MGM Grand, Las Vegas.

He added: “I just have to go out there and just be me and be first.

“I can’t really say how the fight is going to play out, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to be once again extremely dirty and wild.

“My job is to keep everything under control the best way that I can.”