by David P. Greisman

In the eyes of many who were watching on television or from ringside, Floyd Mayweather had to come from behind, adjusting and battling back to take a majority decision over Marcos Maidana.

But in fact, two of the three official judges only had Mayweather down on the scorecards once — following the first round. After that, they had it a draw after two at one round apiece, and then had Mayweather ahead for the remainder of the night.

Those judges, Burt Celements and Dave Moretti, scored the bout 117-111 and 116-112, respectively, for Mayweather.

The third judge, Michael Pernick, had it a 114-114 draw. He had Maidana ahead after 1, a draw after 2, and then Maidana ahead until the 10th round, when he had the bout even again at five rounds apiece. The only moment that he had Mayweather ahead on his card was after the 11th round, when he had Mayweather up by one point, 105-104.

Let’s look even deeper at the scorecards:

Pernick had six rounds for Mayweather: rounds 2, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11. He had six rounds for Maidana: rounds 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 12.

Clements gave Mayweather rounds 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. He gave Maidana rounds 1, 5 and 11.

Moretti gave Mayweather rounds 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11. He gave Maidana rounds 1, 5, 8 and 12.

That means all three judges agreed unanimously on seven of the 12 rounds, giving Round 1 to Maidana, Round 2 to Mayweather, Round 5 to Maidana, Round 6 to Mayweather, Round 7 to Mayweather, Round 9 to Mayweather, and Round 10 to Mayweather.

Where there wasn’t unanimity, then, was in:

- Round 3, which Clements and Moretti gave to Mayweather, while Pernick gave it to Maidana.

- Round 4, which Clements and Moretti gave to Mayweather, while Pernick gave it to Maidana.

- Round 8, which Moretti and Pernick gave to Maidana, while Clements gave it to Mayweather.

- Round 11, which Moretti and Pernick gave to Mayweather, while Clements gave it to Maidana.

- Round 12, which Moretti and Pernick gave to Maidana, while Clements gave it to Mayweather.

If we were to take a score from “majority rules” — in which a fighter gets the edge from at least 2 of the 3 judges for that round — then Mayweather would’ve won 8 rounds (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11) and Maidana would’ve won 4 rounds (1, 5, 8 and 12), and the final card would’ve been the 116-112 card that Moretti turned in.

Pick up a copy of David’s new book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com