By Yannis Mihanos: For many fans the May 3rd fight between number 1 pound for pound king of boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr (45-0) and the WBA welterweight title holder Marcos Maidana (38-3) looks one sided.
Maidana is the explosive fighter from Argentina. As any boxer, Maidana has a puncher’s chance. But is that good enough to defeat the best defensive fighter in recent boxing history?
In boxing they say: all it takes is one punch to change the fight. That’s right to say because Maidana has knocked down many of his opponents (31 out of 38).
But first of all there is a basic requirement for this to happen against Mayweather: He must land a punch! It might sound funny but it’s true. Landing big punches is something very difficult even for a competent puncher like Maidana.
This is something that many previous opponents of Mayweather, especially the last two Robert Guerrero and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez), had trouble with. It is easier said than done. It is clear as water to me that Floyd won’t stand in front and exchange punches with Marcos. With this way Mayweather will only get KOed. This is exactly what Broner did against Maidana and of course Broner paid the heavy price with two knockdowns and a defeat. That’s why I think Marcos needs much more than a puncher’s chance.
Many of the opponents of Mayweather – Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Juan Manuel Marquez, Victor Ortiz and others) – were good punchers, all with the knock out ability, but not with the necessary technical skills or mind to do something more.
The recent form of Maidana shows that he has improved since that lackluster performance against Devon Alexander in 2012. That is mostly credit to his new trainer Robert Garcia: His focused training on footwork and body movement has made Maidana a more complete fighter.
Now Maidana can move around the ring a lot better than he used to be, so that can be something to count on for his fight against Mayweather, which is an important asset indeed.
Many hope that Maidana can repeat his December performance with Adrien Brone,r and beat Mayweather. Public demand for such result is high. Mayweather receives the biggest amount of hate comments in boxing today. He is the number 1 and so it is natural to be wanted and hated.
The audience expects fireworks on May 3rd, certainly there are the necessary ingredients for that. All we have to do is wait and see.
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