Boxing Mad Magazine #10 MAYDAY FOR MAIDANA | Page 16

MAYDAY

FOR

MAIDANA

Mayweather won the rematch eight
months later much more decisively and
had clearly learned an awful lot from
their first meeting, adapting to
Castillo’s blend of pressure, body attack and effective boxing. In his
incredible championship run since
Castillo, Mayweather has
comfortably dispatched many top-level fighters renowned for their pressure
and body assault, including the likes of
Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Saul
‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Maidana therefore can’t take too much
comfort from Castillo’s exploits against
Floyd that night twelve long years ago,
though it does point to a gameplan
where he could find some success
in the fight. Maintaining composed
pressure behind a piston-like jab was
where Maidana had great success
against Floyd’s ‘protégé’ Broner,
though the somewhat flat-footed Broner and the fleet-footed Mayweather are
leagues apart.
The jab is key however. In Oscar De
La Hoya’s record-breaking 2007 battle with Floyd, it was the only punch
with which ‘The Golden Boy’ had consistent success. The improved Maidana jab under Garcia is paramount if
the Argentine is to have any success
in the fight, but to even come close
to defeating Mayweather, you have to
have a hell of a lot more in your
arsenal.
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JACK SUMNER
Maidana’s right hand carries the
power to trouble any welterweight if
it can land flush, but as Canelo Alvarez found out, landing flush on
Mayweather is like winning the lottery. And as proven by the hard right
hand of Shane Mosley, Mayweather’s
powers of recovery are exceptional.
He has a great chin and his incredible conditioning means that the effect
of devastating punches don’t last for
long.
Exceptional speed has been known to
trouble Mayweather at times, as Zab
Judah displayed early in their fight,
but again Floyd was able to adjust
and comfortably win the fight. Speed,
at least at elite level, is something
Maidana just doesn’t have.
Some claim that Mayweather’s Achilles heel is the southpaw stance, little good to Maidana as an orthodox
fighter. In fact, many believe that
Maidana’s conventional stance is
one of the reasons he was picked by
Floyd and the likes of Pacquiao and
Sergio Martinez continue to be ignored.
In a nutshell, if Floyd Mayweather
is anything near the best he can be
there is barely a shred of evidence
to suggest that Maidana can win this
fight. But, having celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday, is there a possibility that Mayweather’s impressive
attributes could wane overnight?

BOXINGMADMAGAZINE.COM

That fleetness of foot is historically one
of the first things to go in an ageing
fighter and his ability to move around
the ring is something that Mayweather
relies on greatly. If his trusty legs fail
him, there are few fighters in world boxing you’d less like to be trapped on the
inside with than Maidana.
Maidana has nothing to lose and
everything to gain on the biggest night
of his life. He’ll need to produce a career-best performance for this to be his
moment. But life, and particularly boxing, has a way of surprising us. The history of the sport is littered with upsets.
Douglas beat Tyson, Ali beat Liston.
David beat Goliath. It’s not impossible.

Maidana
has nothing
to lose and
everything
to gain!
BOXINGMADMAGAZINE.COM

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