By Mark Whicker

    

LOS ANGELES -- Marcos Maidana seems resigned to the fact that he won't be able to use his favorite gloves in the rematch with Floyd Maywather Jr. on Sept. 13.

That was an issue before the first fight in May, when Mayweather objected to Maidana's custom set of Everlast gloves and said there was no padding inside.

Mayweather wound up winning a difficult majority decision over Maidana.

"The gloves didn't feel comfortable, they felt like pillows," Maidana said Thursday before the final stop in the promotional tour for the fight. "It's an open issue. We're going to fight for my gloves. He probably won't want me to wear them, and if I have to wear different ones I will. At least I will have an opportunity to train in them this time."

Each fighter accused the other of dirty tactics in the first fight, which featured an all-out attack by Maidana on every part of Mayweather's torso he could find., including areas below the beltline.

"This guy came at me with a very dirty, reckless style," Mayweather said. "I knew something crazy would happen in this fight. I got cut by a head butt. But he isn't fighting me with gloves that don't have padding. If he wants to fight in MMA or have a bare-knuckled brawl, I wish him the best. But to beat me in a boxing ring, he has to earn it with hard work."

Maidana said Mayweather "fights with his elbows too much" but didn't have the punching power he might have expected.

"I won the fight," Maidana said. "So I gave him this rematch."

Maidana said he should be better in the rematch because he plans to come into the ring much lighter. He was at 170 when he climbed into the ring in May. He also said the experience of being in the ring with Mayweather should help.

"I was too anxious," he said. "If I had slowed down and just fought a little smarter, it might have been different. He didn't impress me. He wasn't as good as everybody says."

Nayweather responded with the same yeah-and-so's-your-old-man rhetoric that characterized their tour.

"Miguel Cotto was stronger, a much better fighter," Mayweather said. "Canelo (Alvarez) was a better fighter. It's just that with Canelo, it was like a chess match. The bar is just set so high for me that people think they won when they won three rounds off me."

Actually Mayweather only won nine rounds on one scoreboard, that of Burt Clements. Michael Pernick scored it a draw, and Dave Moretti gave Mayweather eight rounds.

Mark Whicker has covered sports in Southern California for 27 years.