Maidana needs to win this fight or make it close like he did the last time if he wants to be able to continue to get big paydays in the future. A one-sided loss to Mayweather will hurt Maidana’s marketability, because he’ll come out of the fight with less bargaining room in the future when taking on the other top welterweights in the division.
Maidana expects to be able to jump on Mayweather from the first round and punish him the same way he did the last time they fought. Maidana doesn’t see their rematch being any different than their first fight from last May other than him landing stronger blows because he plans on standing farther apart from Mayweather. He felt that he smothered his best work the last time.
“I think I’m going to be able to make some adjustments, and change up a bit,” Maidana said via Fighthype.com. He won’t be able to make any adjustments. He always fights the same way, so I think that is going to be the difference.”
If Maidana is correct in Mayweather fighting the same as he did last time, then it’s quite possible that we could see an upset on September 13th, especially if Maidna is able to get more leverage on his shots than he did the last time.
Maidana definitely smothered his own work last time he fought Mayweather by staying on the inside for much of the fight. Had he stayed at medium distance, it’s likely that he would have had more impact on his shots.
What could be the most important thing for Maidana in the rematch is the type of gloves that he wears. If he’s stuck using gloves that he’s not comfortable with like the last time then it’s going to make it tough for him to get the win. He needs to be wearing gloves that fit his hands, and that allows him to get as much punishing force on his shots as possible.
The Everlast MX gloves, which had been approved previously by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, was perfect for him. It’s not likely that he’s going to be able to use these gloves for the rematch, but if he can get something close to them then he’s going to clearly fight a lot better.
Maidana feels that his stamina is going to be better for the rematch because he has 8 weeks to train instead of the 5 weeks for their fight last May. It’s unclear whether his stamina will be improved or not with the added training time, because Maidana has had stamina problems in his previous fights that have gone the distance, so it’s probable that he’s going to have some kinds of fatigue problems in the later rounds against Mayweather.
If Maidana rehydrates to 165, like he did last time, it’s going to be a problem for him because that’s 18 pounds of water weight Maidana put on overnight before facing Mayweather. He can’t do that this time and expect to be able to fight strong in the last 4 rounds of the fight.
Read more at http://www.boxingnews24.com/2014/07/maidana-turns-31-today-feels-ready-for-upset-of-mayweather/#ut27rA5PG7YG3xbD.99