By Chris Williams: WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) is so confident that he’ll beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) this Saturday night on May 3rd that he’s already looking past him towards an equally big money fight against Manny Pacquiao in 2014. Maidana would like to have that fight with the Filipino star, even though it might prove to be next to impossible to put together due to the reluctance of his promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions to work with Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank.
I believe Maidana would be too strong for Pacquiao now and would knock him out cold the way that Juan Manuel Marquez did. That’s another reason why this fight might prove impossible to make. Maidana is simply too dangerous for the aging 35-year-old Pacquiao now.
If Oscar De La Hoya was calling the shots with Golden Boy, Maidana would have a very good chance of getting that fight, but it looks like Schaefer is the one who is deciding on who fights who.
“After Mayweather, we want Pacquiao, too,” said Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia. After hearing this, Maidana said “Not even witchcraft will save him [Pacquiao].”
Maidana’s comment about witchcraft was directed at Pacquiao’s mom, who was doing a lot of pointing other weird movements during Pacquiao’s last fight against Tim Bradley that had some boxing fans thinking she was trying to use magic to help Pacquiao win a fight that he was already in well control of.
For Maidana to beat Mayeather, he’s going to need to fight the smartest fight of his life, and he’s going to need to jump on Mayweather early. Maidana might not have the stamina to get Mayweather out of there later in the fight. Besides, Maidana might be too punch drunk and mentally defeated by late in the fight for him to be able to score a miracle knockout. I personally don’t see Maidana realizing his dream and getting a fight against Pacquiao.
If it’s going to happen, it’s got to take place within the first three rounds if at all. Maidana was at his best in his last fight against Adrien Broner in the first 2 rounds, and from that point on Maidana showed signs of gassing. Not much will have changed from that fight to this one. In other words, if Maidana doesn’t get to Mayweather right off the bat on Saturday, he’ll probably end up losing an embarrassingly one-sided fight.
Even if we want to go into a make believe type of scenario where Maidana beats Mayweather, he still won’t get the fight with Pacquiao as long as he’s with Golden Boy. Maidana would likely have to wait until his contract with Golden Boy expires before he could go after the Pacquiao fight. By then, who knows, Pacquiao might have been exposed again by someone else.
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