Maidana-Mayweather isn’t the same fight as Mayweather-Pacquaio

By PenzoJ - 05/06/2014 - Comments

may70By Penzoj: Firstly, let me congratulate both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Marcos Maidana camps on an excellent fight last Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had the score 115-113 clearly in favor of Mayweather in a very exciting and competitive fight. 12 rounds of pure action and if it wasn’t for Lucas Matthysse and John Molina’s war of fist on April 26th, I would’ve have given this fight of the year as the first half of the 2014 year of boxing is coming to an end. Now that I’ve said that, lets continue with the topic.

A lot of articles are giving Pacquaio the edge over Mayweather based on Saturdays fight. Lets make this clear, styles make fights. The plan that Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia had for Mayweather was great. In my eyes, that’s the only way you have a chance to beat Mayweather. Push him to the ropes, rough him up and throw punches till your arms fall off (of course those punches need to land cleanly but you get the point). Maidana did all those things but land clean shots. Keep in my mind punches below the belt and behind the head will not count towards a winning round, and I think the judges had the same view as I did. Mayweather did help Marcos by allowing Marcos to pressure him on the ropes, a place where no man should be against “El Chino”.

With that being said, Manny Pacquaio is not Maidana. He’s the cleanest fighter in the sport today. I’ve watched Pacquaio get hit below the belt 7 times against Agapito Sanchez and not retaliate even when Freddie Roach told him to. I’m sure all of you know that no one can beat Floyd in the center of the ring. That’s why Pacquaio style is textbook for Floyd. Most of Pacquaio’s destruction occurs in the middle of the ring where other fighters who don’t have the defense of a Floyd Mayweather. Pacquaio’s mid ring barrage of combinations will back someone into the ropes but he’s never actually forced someone into the ropes like Maidana did.

Pacquaio and Freddie Roach will have to train to not only fight a bigger fighter (not that much of a difference in my eyes),but someone who might be faster.  Lastly, with one more reason Maidana’s performance is of no use for a Pacman/Floyd encounter is the one thing Floyd does better than anyone in boxing today. That’s adjust. Floyd doesn’t fight anyone the same. He adjust, and quickly changes the pace of the fight. Then again, anything can happen in boxing so I’ll sit here and hope to see this fight along with every other hardcore boxing fan. Remember this is just my personal opinion. Feel free to comment and thank you for reading.



Comments are closed.