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Home » Mayweather: I was boxer and referee in first Maidana fight

Mayweather: I was boxer and referee in first Maidana fight

Mayweather, 37, was embroiled in a messy affair with the Argentine last May, which ended in a majority decision in his favour, and has since approved a change of referee as Bayless replaces Tony Weeks.

‘Money’ has already stated that he feared for his health in those first twelve rounds at the MGM Grand and wants more to be done this time around to police any illegal moves by the rugged challenger.

“I think Tony Weeks is an extraordinary referee. I think Kenny Bayless is an extraordinary referee. Tony Weeks is only human. He’s capable of having a bad night. So it doesn’t matter who the ref was going to be, we just want to go out there and entertain and give people something, give people an exciting fight. I’m pretty sure Kenny Bayless is going to be watching both sides extremely close,” said Mayweather.

“The job of the referee is to be fair and not lean towards my side or not lean towards Maidana’s side, but with the team meetings before the fight hopefully, like I’m pretty sure the last time Leonard and my team didn’t know that Robert Garcia was going to tell his guy to go out there and be extremely dirty.

“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. 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.”

On whether he expects Maidana to fight the same way this Saturday night in Las Vegas, Mayweather added: “I’m not really sure, but it’s possible. It’s possible. He did a little bit of everything. That night I had to do two jobs; I had to be the boxer and referee, so I had to do two jobs. But Tony Weeks, he’s a future Hall of Fame referee and he does an extraordinary job in the sport of boxing, and so does Kenny Bayless.”

Mayweather v Maidana 2 is live on Showtime PPV on September 13 and BoxNation in the UK. To subscribe click BoxNation

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