Ug, I tend to read only at this forum, but too many people don't understand clenching in boxing. If you attempt to clench, and the opponent is not resistant, meaning, he doesn't attempt to struggle/punch with the free arm, the referee can, and should call for a break and reset the distance. In this case, Bayless reset them like feet apart, not across the goddamn ring. Grow the f*ck up. If Maidana would have punched with his free hand, cut angles, made space and tried to actually in-box, he would have stalled the break call. As it is, he instead gave up, or was wrapped up quickly, (this is a skill, it's hard to wrap up an opponent that is actively try to take your hear off) and the break was called. Frankly, I don't know what else you'd expect Floyd to do. Sit in the pocket and trade with a heavy handed banger who is constantly holding and hitting, and punching to the back of the head/neck? Or engaging in short range counter punching, then initiating a clench? The clench worked, Maidana didn't particularly do much about it. He's gotta work in there.
There's a threshold, you'll hear some refs tell you to "punch your way out" prior to the full clench setting in. Once this happens, the fighters have to be broken up. That's how it works.
