By Keith Idec
Floyd Mayweather Jr. suspects two judges were swayed Saturday night by what Adonis Stevenson accomplished in short spurts.
The retired superstar, whose company promotes Badou Jack, believes his fighter did more than enough to out-point Stevenson and win the WBC light heavyweight title from him. That didn’t happen, according to Mayweather, because judges Guido Cavalleri and Eric Marlinski didn’t give Jack enough credit for what he accomplished during some rounds in which Stevenson had brief success.
Cavalleri and Marlinski scored their back-and-forth fight even (114-114).
Mayweather gave Jack credit for winning seven of the 12-rounds at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. That’s exactly how judge Jesse Reyes scored the fight for Jack, 115-113.
Mayweather admitted during the post-fight press conference that Jack (22-1-3, 13 KOs) started slow Saturday night.
“He gave the first three rounds away,” Mayweather said. “I’m just speaking honest. One thing with me, I have to be honest with these fighters today. He gave the first three rounds away. But then, after that, picked up the pace. Combinations, right hands, left hooks, body shots. And then, the 11th round – even though Adonis Stevenson did win, they gave him the 11th round. But he landed a good body shot towards the end, I think the last 30 seconds of the 10th round. Then the 11th round, he came out strong for one minute.
“So a lot of time, what we do as judges, we have to look at all three minutes of the round. Sometimes we just look at 30 seconds of the round, whereas that’s I’m trying to say, a lot of times we’re not doing our homework, we’re slacking. Even like the writers and the spectators, we only remember the last 30 seconds or the last 20 seconds. Well, remembering the last 30 seconds, what about two minutes and 30 seconds, before the last 30 seconds?”
According to unofficial Compubox numbers, Jack out-landed Stevenson in overall punches (209-of-549 to 165-of-622). CompuBox counted more power punches (154-of-345 to 144-of-360) and jabs (55-of-204 to 21-of-262) for Jack.
Jack out-landed Stevenson in six of the 12 rounds, according to CompuBox, which counted more punches in five rounds for Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KOs). CompuBox credited Stevenson and Jack for landing four punches apiece in the first round.
“I feel that Adonis Stevenson won the first three rounds, clearly,” Mayweather said. “But then, around the fourth round, it started taking a toll. So, and then he came back on and he won I think around the fifth. So if I called the fight, I would call the fight a 7-5, you know, leaning towards Badou. And it’s not me being biased. In the 11th round, [Stevenson] came on strong. But also, he came on strong in the first minute of the 11th round. But then, two minutes in the 11th round, he gave away.”
Mayweather noticed Stevenson stealing rounds in his own way.
“Like I said before, with the judges, a lot of times what we have to start watching is the whole round,” Mayweather said. “Sometimes a guy can come on. ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard was one of the masters of doing that. In the last 30 seconds, he’d throw a flurry and steal a round. It was a smart move, though. What we have to stop watching is what we tend to watch. It’s just when a guy do something good in a round, instead of watching the whole round.”
2023-10-21 02:09:06
