(Photo credit: Idris Erba/Mayweather Promotions) By Allan Fox: Challenger Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) sees himself in a situation where he’s going to need a knockout to beat WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) in their rematch on September 13th.
Maidana doesn’t see himself being given a decision due to Mayweather having too good of defensive skills for him to beat him that way. Maidana obviously knows that Mayweather will be concentrating more on his defense for the rematch than he did the previous time they fought each other in May.
“I’m going to have to go for the knockout this time, I have no choice. Floyd’s defense is very good and at times it is hard to hit him. That’s why I want to knock him out. First, I’m going to give him a beating and then I’m going to knock him out. It’s going to be hard to get a decision because he connects well and knows how to score points.”
Maidana is going to need Mayweather to be stationary long enough for him to land something big, because he can’t count on Mayweather backing up to the ropes this time around. Mayweather will have been told by his father/trainer Floyd Sr that he needs to stay off the ropes because that was the only area where Maidana was able to consistently land his big power shots.
When they were in the center of the ring, Maidana was limited to landing just jabs. He did a good job of landing the jabs, but he was unable to land his left hooks and right hands from that area. Maidana needed Mayweather to be against the ropes each time he would land something big.
Maidana said “I’m going to make some technical adjustments, work on my distance and always pressure him. Our camp last time was great, but we just need to make minor adjustments to get the win. “
Maidana doesn’t want to smother his work by getting in as close as he did last time where he was trying to fight Mayweather on the inside rather than from medium distance. It looked like Maidana was concerned with the hard counters that Mayweather was coming back with.
When Maidana stayed close, he didn’t have to worry as much about getting hit by Mayweather with anything substantial. But he also took away his own power by standing too close to Mayweather instead of stepping back a foot to get more space to punch.
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