MAYWEATHER PROMOTIONS POLL BETWEEN AMIR KHAN VS. MARCOS MAIDANA – WAS IT RIGGED???
By Justin Ryu, RCM Boxing Correspondent
About seven days ago, boxing fans received word via social media outlets that P4P king, Floyd Mayweather, would be posting an online poll inquiring the public about his next opponent. Over the course of the week, this survey – posted on:
http://www.mayweatherpromotions.com/fan-vote/who-should-floyd-mayweather-fight-next – allowed anyone and everyone to vote between speed king Amir Khan and power puncher Marcos Maidana as Floyd’s future challenger on May 3 of this year. After receiving close to 40,000 votes, the Mayweather Promotions site currently has Amir Khan in a significant lead at 57% favored compared to Maidana at 43%. This all sounds fine and fair on paper, but interestingly enough, poll data from other media venues has been showing that the numbers from Floyd’s official site may not actually reflect what fans really want.
After Floyd announced the release of last week’s poll, many sports/boxing sites followed suit and created a similar survey for their readers to take. There was a general buzz in the air as fans felt like they could actively participate in deciding who the #1 guy in the sport would face next. This excitement gradually turned into confusion once the discrepancy between the official site’s data and other news sources grew more and more significant. To give you some sort of an idea on just how different the data is, fighthype.com’s internal poll currently has Maidana at 73% over Khan at 27% and fightnews.com has “El Chino” in the lead at 78% beating his fellow Brit contender at 22%. At first glance, these numbers have the possibility of being skewed as the fan base for each of these news sources is reduced (maybe a 100 votes tops) compared to those viewing the official poll on Mayweather Promotions. However, the biggest kicker comes via ESPN – one of the largest sporting networks and news outlets in the world – as their numbers indicate 63% of fans want to see Marcos fight Floyd next as opposed 37% voting the other way. This data being processed is coming from a whopping 67,000 voters – close to 30,000 more than at Mayweather’s own site. Needless to say the trend seems legitimate: the fans want Maidana.
So what gives? The natural (and currently most popular) assumption is that someone is rigging the official survey data, but why? Well, one should consider that Floyd’s nickname is “Money” and a fight with Amir could potentially generate more cash given Khan’s fan base in the UK. This theory; however, does not match up with poll data favoring Marcos or the fact that Maidana just recently fought his heart out in a huge victory upset over phenom Adrien Broner, and is the absolute hot topic in boxing these days. It could be reasonably assumed that fighting Marcos would make Floyd just as rich as fighting Amir.
Well then, why else would Floyd’s official poll trend towards picking Khan when every other site indicates otherwise? Fans (especially Manny Pacquiao’s) have indicated that Floyd might actually prefer a fight with Khan because it is the easier of the two. Amir has been known to be a little “chinny” at times (watch his fights with Danny Garcia, Maidana, and Breidis Prescott), and could be easily susceptible to another KD/KO. On the other side, Marcos Maidana has some massive power in both hands and the heart of a lion who never quits. Again, very reasonable to conclude that Mayweather would want to opt in to the “safer” fight with Amir. One has to consider; however, that styles make fights, and Floyd’s most dominant victories have been against guys who have aggressive, Maidana-like styles (aka Diego Corrales, Ricky Hatton). Let’s just say, it’s easiest to counter-punch boxers who voluntarily engage and walk straight forward. Floyd is arguably the best counter-puncher in the sport so maybe a fight with Marcos might actually be the less threatening of the two. Hmmmm….confusing.
Take what you will from the situation, and come up with your own theory as to why the official poll data looks strange, and why Floyd might prefer Amir over Marcos. I, for one, think that Floyd had an opponent picked before the survey even went out, and this whole act of creating an online poll is just an effective marketing scheme. Again, this boxer’s nickname is “Money”. Everyone out there has differing opinions on who he is as a person and as a fighter, but no one can deny that he is indeed a brilliantly shrewd businessman. Bottom line: this guy knows how to get attention. Throughout this hoopla of Khan v. Maidana, Facebook posts have been popping up almost instantaneously and Twitter has been an interesting scene to say the least. Apparently, both Marcos and Amir grew impatient of Floyd’s reluctance to commit to an opponent, and tweeted to each other that they should fight instead in a long awaited rematch. That side conversation just began when Paulie Malignaggi entered the mix with his own personal tweet to Mayweather saying that Floyd should fight him perhaps in Paulie’s backyard in NYC.
In addition to waiting for Floyd’s official decision and being thoroughly confused by his survey, boxing fans are generally displeased at the lack of quality opposition the P4P king is considering in the first place. Most are still screaming for a potential match-up with Manny Pacquiao while others just want Floyd to face a viable threat. Mayweather is slated to retire in September 2015, and one thing in this whole mess is crystal clear: he should pick some better opponents before he leaves.
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