(Photo credit: Idris Erba) By Allan Fox: Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) says he’s working hard on his conditioning for his rematch against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) to make sure that he doesn’t fade late in the fight like he did the last time they fought.
Maidana fought effectively in the first six rounds of the bout, but then kind of fell apart in the last half of action due in part to him having rehydrated to 165 after making weight at 147 the day before the fight. Putting on close to 20 pounds obviously didn’t help Maidana in the stretch run of the fight, but the extra weight likely was one of the main reasons why he was able to bully Mayweather during the first part of the action.
“It is no secret that I won the first rounds and he [Mayweather] did better on the last ones,” Maidana said. “This time around I’m planning to keep up with his rhythm. I’m making adjustments, when he presses I’m going to press him too.”
If Maidana is serious about wanting to prevent running out of gas then he’s going to need to take off some muscle weight, because at Thursday’s press tour with Mayweather, Maidana looked to weighing in the 170s, possibly the 180s. Maidana didn’t look fat either. He appeared to be a muscular person carrying around 170-180 pounds of weight. For Maidana not to run out of gas in this fight, he’s going to need to get down lower than 165.
Putting on 18 pounds of water weight overnight is going to hurt Maidana in the stamina department. That’s too much weight for him to be taking off and putting back on in such a short time. Maidana also came in heavy for his win over Adrien Broner last December, but that was against a lesser talented fighter than Mayweather.
To beat someone as good as Mayweather, Maidana needs to be lighter so that he’s more of a 12 round fighter. Last May, Maidana looked like a 6-round fighter, because after the 6th, he wasn’t pushing the fight nearly as hard as he was in the first part of the fight.
“In my first fight against Floyd, I learned that he’s not that great, he’s not that superhuman boxer everybody talks about. If I wouldn’t have been so anxious looking for the knockout, I would have beat him,” Maidana said.
Maidana fought the best that he could against Mayweather, but there really wasn’t anything he could do to win this fight unless he had better stamina and had done a better job of placing his shots. Maidana made a mistake of loading up too much with the head shots, which frequently missed badly. If he had thrown more to the body, Maidana would have had a better chance of connecting with his shots.
At the end of the day, Maidana is probably going to win or lose this fight based on his conditioning. If he runs out of gas in the last part of the fight like he did against Adrien Broner and Mayweather, then there’s little chance he’ll be able to win. The fight could be close going into the 8th round, but if Mayweather sweeps the last 5 rounds against a sluggish and heavy 165 pound Maidana, then Mayweather will take the decision once again.
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