By Raj Parmar: Even before Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) had announced he would give Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) a rematch on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia was already thinking up ways that Marcos would be able to unseat Floyd from the top of boxing world.
One note he took very seriously from the first fight was Maidana’s assertion that Floyd’s punches did not hurt him at all. This has led Garcia to believe that Maidana can be more effective by weighing less in the rematch. Maidana weighed 165 pounds in the first fight and Garcia aims to have him weigh 152-155 for the rematch.
One has to wonder if this is the right tactic that the Maidana camp is coming up with. The reason for the lighter weight would be to allow Maidana to throw many more than the 858 punches he threw in the first and to throw them with much greater speed. It is also known that after throwing everything including the kitchen sink at Floyd in the first half of the fight, Maidana faded in the second half which allowed Mayweather to dominate. At a lower weight, Garcia feels Marcos will have less weight to carry around during the fight and can thus stay effective for a longer duration.
What is interesting is that Mayweather stated once the rematch was signed that he was going to work on strength training for the rematch. This comment gives away the fact that Floyd felt Maidana’s physical advantage over him greatly in the first fight, and that the strategy to outweigh and bully Mayweather was a big part of why Maidana was very competitive in the first fight and is something Floyd is worried about heading into rematch.
Therefore it could be possible that Maidana is trading away the big advantage he had in the first fight that Floyd himself acknowledged was a big problem for him to handle, in exchange for increased speed and stamina. These categories are Mayweather’s biggest strengths and it is impossible for Marcos to be able to throw at speeds to bother the quick Mayweather and have the stamina to outlast Floyd. It is definitely a gamble for Team Maidana to give up their physical advantage over Floyd and try to beat Mayweather at his own game; however if it leads Maidana to throw over 1000 punches in the fight than there is still a chance that the gamble may have a chance to pay off if one of those punches happen to connect perfectly.
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