Floyd Mayweather beats Marcos Maidana by majority decision

For the first time in a long time, fans left a Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight without a clear-cut impression that "Money" was a winner.

Mayweather indeed emerged with a majority decision over rugged Marcos Maidana in their WBA/WBC welterweight unification match, but a loudly partisan crowd whistled its displeasure when announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. read the verdict -- and cheered Maidana when he insisted he'd deserved the decision.

Mayweather won by comfortable 116-112 and 117-111 margins on two scorecards, while the third was even at 114-114.

Win or lose, it was no easy night for Mayweather, who was repeatedly bulled to the ropes in the early going and was cut by an accidental headbutt over the right eye in round four.

He credited his cut man, Rafael Garcia, and suggested that mid-fight adjustments were the key to him controlling the late going of the fight.

"A true champion can make adjustments," he said. "It was a tough fight. I decided to stay in there and give the fans what they wanted to see."

On the topic of a rematch, he said, "If the fans want to see it again, let's do it again."

Punch stats indicated Maidana threw 858 punches to Mayweather's 426, but was nonetheless outlanded, 230-221. Still, it's the most shots ever landed by a Mayweather opponent.

Maidana was ahead, four rounds to two, on the ultimately even scorecard of Michael Pernick before Mayweather rallied to win the seventh, ninth, 10th and 11th on his card.

The other two cards had Mayweather up, 4-2, after six. Dave Moretti gave Mayweather five of the final six as well, while Burt Clements awarded him four of the last six.

"I definitely think I won this fight," Maidana said. "He did dominate some rounds, but the majority of them, I dominated.

"I'm not scared of him, why not give him a rematch. I have to give him a rematch because I won the fight."