Kenny Bayless on refereeing Mayweather vs Maidana 2: 'I don't see any issues or problems'

Floyd Mayweather's gritty win over Marcos Maidana earlier this year was accompanied by claims from Mayweather that Maidana had fought dirty, and that referee Tony Weeks didn't do enough to deter that behavior.

Another respected Nevada official, Kenny Bayless, has drawn assignment for the rematch on Saturday, and tells Lem Satterfield that he doesn't anticipate any issues, and called upon his experience as the third man for another potentially volatile rematch in 2006:

"I did the rematch with Fernando Vargas and Sugar Shane Mosley, and in the first fight, Fernando experienced what he claimed was a head butt. The Mosley camp claimed that it was a punch. Fernando Vargas' forehead swelled up real badly.

"They had to stop the fight, and there was a lot of talk leading up to the second fight, which I did. When I got to the dressing room and explained what I'm going to do, the rest just fell into place. There were no problems, even with all of the talk leading up to the Mosley-Vargas second fight.

"Everything worked out well during the fight. So I don't personally see any issues or problems in this fight. Once I express what my feelings are and what I expect both fighters to do, from that point on, everything will go well."

Bayless is one of the most consistent and proven referees in the game, as is Weeks, and it's unlikely we'll see any major problems on Saturday. He's known to keep control of fights.

That said, it's also unlikely that we'll see either Mayweather or Maidana change their tactics. Whether or not you thought the fight in May was dirtier than Weeks called is up to taste, I suppose, but unless Bayless has it in his head early to be more disruptive than Weeks was, it's hard to see Kenny making any more of an impact than Tony did.