Floyd Mayweather had one of the toughest fights of his career to date but managed to unify the WBC and WBA welterweight titles with a points victory over Marcos Maidana.
Mayweather went into the bout as the overwhelming favourite having won all of his previous 45 professional fights.
However, he was made to work for it as Maidana caught the 37-year-old on a number of occasions – including one unintentional headbutt which saw Floyd cut for the first time in his career – but Mayweather’s better accuracy saw him claim the win.
One judge had the pair tied at 114-114, but the other scores were 117-111 and 116-112 in Mayweather’s favour.
After Amir Khan had earlier beaten Luis Collazo it had been felt that the English boxer would be next up to fight Mayweather, but Floyd himself hinted at a rematch with Maidana.
“This was a tough, competitive fight,” he said afterwards.
“Normally when I fight I box and move. This was a tough fight. I wanted to fight.
“If the fans want to see it again, we will do it again.”
