Mayweather Wins, Then Hype Begins

It certainly wasn’t the first time promoter Bob Arum stood at a microphone in a postfight news conference to rage against the judges’ scoring.

But it was the first time he had done so after one of his key fighters had won.

Moments after Floyd Mayweather Jr. was given a unanimous decision over Jose Luis Castillo at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night to capture Castillo’s World Boxing Council lightweight championship, Arum was protesting the margin of the decision.

Judges Jerry Roth and John Keane both had it 115-111. Judge Anek Hongtongkam had it 116-111.

The Times scored it 114-112 for Mayweather.

“I disagree with the way the [judges’] scoring went,” Arum said. “It’s not that I feel Mayweather didn’t win, but not by this margin. This is ludicrous. How could two judges give Mayweather the 12th round? How could that happen.”

There was, of course, method to Arum’s madness.

His scathing comments on the officials were followed immediately--surprise, surprise--by a spirited cry for a rematch.

Promoted, of course, by Arum, since he also has Castillo.

“I’m going to call Staples Center on Monday morning,” Arum said. “We can get 19,000 people there.”

Which would be a huge improvement over the 6,920 at MGM on Saturday night, with a percentage of those tickets given away, according to a member of the promotional organization.

Arum is hoping to stage the rematch in August.

Mayweather (28-0, 20 knockouts), the former WBC super-featherweight champion making his first appearance at 135 pounds, conceded it wasn’t one of his best fights, but said he had hurt his left shoulder Wednesday while hitting a punching bag, severely reducing the mobility in his left arm.

“I pulled my rotator cuff,” he said, “and it affected my jab. It was a closer fight because of that. I would like to give him another fight when Floyd Mayweather is 100%.”

Castillo (45-5-1, 41), making the fourth defense of the title he won from Stevie Johnston in 2000, saw it differently, of course.

“I hope he doesn’t use an excuse about his hand,” said Castillo through a translator, apparently not understanding Mayweather’s excuse was his shoulder. “Every time he doesn’t look good, he says it was his hand.

“I won the fight. I think I made it an intelligent fight. I told you before I was going to win and I did. I showed the world what I am made of. I proved Floyd Mayweather is not the best pound-for-pound champion.

“I know he is a gentleman. I hope he sets up an immediate rematch.”

Through five rounds, Mayweather appeared to be cruising to an easy victory as he was on his toes, landing punches at will and shifting smoothly from his right-handed style to southpaw and back. He stayed out of harm’s way when Castillo got aggressive and generally confused the fighter from Sonora, Mexico.

Castillo admitted it took him a while to figure out Mayweather.

But in the middle rounds, Castillo’s punches started to land, especially to the body.

Castillo won a clear decision on the punch stats. He landed 203 punches, connecting at a 40% success rate, while Mayweather connected on only 157 punches, successful at a 35% rate.

Castillo came on strong at the end as well, inspiring Arum to begin his poorly disguised hype job for a rematch.

*

In the semi-main event, Johnston (34-2-1, 16) won a majority decision over Alejandro “Cobrita” Gonzalez (48-5-1, 33), a former WBC featherweight champ.

Judges Dave Moretti (116-112) and Carol Castellano (115-113) had Johnston the winner. Judge Paul Smith ruled it a draw at 114-114.

There were no knockdowns in a match that drew boos at times because of a lack of drama.

The biggest drama for Johnston occurred last month when he spent eight days in a Denver jail for failure to pay child support.

Being in prison didn’t affect his training, Johnston insisted.

“They let me run up and down the stairs,” he said.