LAS VEGAS - Carlos Baldomir was game, just as advertised. Floyd Mayweather Jr. was brilliant, just as expected. Brilliant had a much better night. Mayweather dominated nearly every minute of every round Saturday, winning the welterweight title with a lopsided decision to remain unbeaten and set up a possible megafight next year against Oscar De La Hoya. About the only thing Mayweather didn't do was knock Baldomir out, but he had an excuse. He injured his right hand midway through the fight, and was content merely to win rounds as the fight went on. "I fought a perfect fight," Mayweather said. "I can win under any circumstances." Baldomir never went down and never appeared in trouble, but his face was bloodied from the first round on and he took punch after punch to the face from the much quicker and much more skilled Mayweather. Two judges gave Mayweather every round, while a third gave him all but two rounds. The Associated Press had Mayweather winning every round, 120-108. "I thought I'd be able to get the knockout going down the stretch, but I hurt my hand," Mayweather said. "He was pretty resilient. He definitely fought with a lot of heart." Mayweather remained unbeaten in his 37th professional fight, and won for the 16th time in as many title fights. More importantly, he looked good enough to set up a possible fight with De La Hoya in May that could be one of boxing's richest ever. De La Hoya hasn't decided whether to fight again, but says if he does it will be against Mayweather. "I think he'll get in the ring with me after tonight," Mayweather said. "If he wants to, he knows how to reach me." Though Mayweather dominated, he drew scattered boos from the crowd at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino in the late rounds when he boxed Baldomir from the outside and did little to press the action. "People are always criticizing," he told HBO announcer Larry Merchant in an interview in the ring. "You do the commentating and let me do the fighting." Mayweather was technically the challenger against Baldomir, but oddsmakers made him a 4-1 favorite because of his superior boxing skills and defensive abilities. It didn't take long for Mayweather to figure out the Argentine, a veteran fighter who spent much of his career fighting on undercards before winning big fights against Zab Judah and Arturo Gatti earlier this year. Mayweather was sharp from the opening bell, cutting Baldomir over his left eye and on his nose in the first round. The cuts didn't bleed much, but seemed to trouble Baldomir throughout the fight. "I got him, you know what I mean?" Mayweather told his corner after the first round. Mayweather certainly knew, fighting the fight he wanted against Baldomir, whose punches were most often way off the mark and he grew increasingly frustrated. Ringside punch stats showed Mayweather landing 199 of 458 punches, while Baldomir landed just 79 of 670. "He was just too fast and I couldn't catch him," Baldomir said. "And when I did catch him I felt sluggish." Mayweather was the four-time champion in his 16th title fight, but it was the title the former journeyman Baldomir won in an upset of Judah in January that was at stake in the fight. Baldomir's only real hope was to rough Mayweather up and negate his speed and boxing ability, but the strategy wasn't working in the early rounds as Mayweather landed with an assortment of single left hooks and lead right hands. Baldomir was the bigger fighter, weighing in unofficially the night of the fight at 161 pounds to 149 for Mayweather. At the official weigh-in the day before, Baldomir was the class limit of 147 pounds, while Mayweather was 146. By the fifth round, Mayweather was unloading some big punches and Baldomir was growing even more frustrated. He chased Mayweather futilely, taking punishment as he threw wild right hands that seldom found their mark. Baldomir's frustration showed at the end of the fifth round when he gestured angrily at his opponent as Mayweather went back to his corner. Mayweather earned $8 million for the fight, while Baldomir was paid $1.6 million. "It's been a great year," Baldomir said. "I beat Judah and I beat Gatti. I went up against the pound for pound king. I accomplished a lot." Mayweather fought without his trainer in the corner, though it didn't seem to matter much. His uncle, Roger, who usually trains him was a Las Vegas jail serving a six-month sentence on a battery charge. In another fight, Orlando Salido landed the harder punches and more of them to upset Robert Guerrero and win the IBF featherweight title by unanimous decision. Salido, 126, of Mexico, won by wide margins on two ringside scorecards to take the title that Guerrero, of Gilroy, Calif., won in his last fight.-AP
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