(Photo credit: Idris Irba) By MM: With the rematch set, and the fight tour underway, most fight fans feel that Floyd Mayweather Jr will skate to an easy victory over Marcos Maidana on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are a few things that make me feel that will not be the case.
The unknown factor for both fighters is gone. Going into the first fight Maidana may have felt a little cautious, perhaps even intimidated by Mayweather and the big stage. At this point, Maidana knows the power Floyd is packing, and does not believe Floyd can hurt him. Furthermore, Maidana has now been on the big stage, so that should not be a factor in this fight at all. Maidana’s mindset will be he can walk through Floyds punches without worry. Taking 2 or 3 to give 1 or 2.
Mayweather on the other hand probably expected the first fight to be a walk in the park, “easy money”. We all saw, it was neither. Maidana roughed him up, bullied him around, fought dirty, and landed more punches on him than anyone else that has fought Mayweather in the past. Going into the second fight, the intimidation factor has shifted, and is in now on Maidana’s side. Floyd knows Maidana is going to go in looking to rough him up even more so than in the first fight and with Floyd not being able to hurt Maidana, Maidana is going to go for the kill. The fact of the matter is, Maidana is a dangerous fighter with far more power than Floyd, and this fight is a lot more dangerous for Mayweather than it is for Maidana.
Floyd claims he will box this fight. I do not see that happening for two reasons. First and foremost, I do not believe in any way shape or form that Floyd chose to stand and fight with Maidana. I believe Maidana took the fight to Floyd, and his style left him with no choice but to fight. Second, I think Floyd’s pride will cause him to brawl with Maidana again. He has been talking about winning by KO, and that is not going to happen if he tries to box Maidana, unless he is able to really dig to the body and wear him down.
No matter you who believe won the first fight, I think the second fight will be more exciting than the first one. Very few people gave Maidana a chance against Broner or Mayweather, and he surprised everyone. I do not recall any one in recent history showing absolutely no respect to Floyd Mayweather and actually coming to the ring looking like they were trying to take his “0” away. No matter what happens on fight night, or who you are rooting for, sparks are sure to fly.
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Mayweather: Maidana was dirty and reckless last time; Canelo and Cotto are better fighters
Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) really wailed on Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) in their final press tour meeting in Los Angeles, California, by continuing to call him a dirty fighter who has no hopes of winning, and just looking for a payday.
Mayweather says he wouldn’t bother fighting Maidana again if he were beaten by him. But Maidana is willing to take it for the payday because this is his best and only chance of getting a big fight.
“I know that if I lost this fight, then I wouldn’t take it again…The reason why he is trying to fight me again is because he is going to make more money fighting me than anyone else, even though he knows he will lose again.”
I have to agree with Mayweather 100%. Maidana probably knows he doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance of winning the fight other than a lucky knockout, but the payday he’s getting is so amazingly good that he was going to campaign for the rematch. He got the rematch now, but it’s so sad that he’s ruining his moment in the sun by croaking about the gloves. He really needs to move on, doesn’t he?
Mayweather is the king in this equation being that he’s the A-side, so there’s not much Maidana can do is just obediently accept that Mayweather isn’t going to let him wear his gloves. It’s good to be the king. But by Maidana stubbornly insisting on wearing his Everlast MX gloves he’s coming across as scary determined. I just hope he doesn’t pull out of the fight if he doesn’t get his way. The sooner Maidana comes to terms with the fact that he’s not going to be able to wear his favorite gloves the better off he’ll be.
“To be honest, Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez are better fighters than Maidana. They are better, stronger boxers. With me and Canelo, it was more of a chess match as opposed to Maidana who came at me very dirty and reckless. I knew something crazy was going to happen in our fight, which it did, I got a headbutt.”
Yes, the Mayweather-Maidana fight last May was painful to watch because it had so much wild fouling in that fight, and it shocking and disappointing how out of control the fight got. The referee working the fight Tony Weeks looked like he was just in the ring getting a good view of the fight like a fan who had wondered into the ring to watch the action instead of someone who was supposed to control the action.
It’s pretty much academic at this point that Cotto and Canelo are on a different level as Maidana in terms of boxing skills. Those guys are technicians of the sport. Both are flawed in their own way, but they’re definitely skilled technicians that are constantly thinking. The approach Maidana used against Mayweather last May was that of bull lowering his head and charging straight ahead to try and mow Mayweather over.
Maidana initially had some success during the first few rounds while Mayweather was figuring him out looking at a plan of action. But once Mayweather adapted to what Maidana was doing in the ring, he was able to negate pretty much everything he was doing aside from the occasional low blow and rabbit punch. Those things were impossible for Mayweather to deal with without the help of the referee stepping in to do his job.
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