By Chris Williams: Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) showed moments of self-doubt last Saturday night in episode 2 of All Access: Mayweather vs. Maidana 2 on Showtime. Maidana had a conversation with his trainer Robert Garcia’s dad in which Maidana wasn’t sure if he fought the right fight the last time he battled Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) last May.
Maidana seemed to be looking for validation from Garcia’s dad for the way he fought. At the end of the conversation, Maidana said that he wants to hurt Mayweather this time. Maidana seemed like he was in a trance-like state when he made the comment, and you could see how much this fight means to him in their rematch on September 13th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Maidana: “Do you think I was too aggressive in the first fight? Too desperate.”
E. Garcia: “No, it was a good fight. The fans were happy. He [Mayweather] couldn’t do what he wanted to do. You wouldn’t let him.”
Maidana: “I didn’t get him with a good punch the first time. This time I hope I hurt him.”
E. Garcia: “Of course, this time you’re more confident.”
Mikey Garcia: “You’re well-conditioned. It means you’ll throw strong punches with confidence. You’re not going to get tired.
Robert Garcia: “You’re going to kill him, Chino.”
Maidana: “The first fight was very close. I only needed to do a little more to win.”
The first fight really wasn’t that close, and Maidana needed to do a lot more to win. Running out of stamina was his first mistake, and it’s still unknown whether he’ll be able to fix that flaw in his game in the rematch on September 13th. The second mistake Maidana made was he threw too many head shots, and ended up missing most of his punches.
Maidana should have adjusted by going to the body of Mayweather, which was hittable if Maidana had the foresight to aim his punches down there. I blame Robert Garcia more for this than I do Maidana, because he Garcia should have noticed that Maidana wasn’t able to hit Mayweather with head shots on a consistent enough basis to win the fight.
Garcia said to Maidana “Stay busy, keep throwing and throwing in the fight. In the 11th round you hit him with a great shot, but it hit him in the chest. If you had hit him on the chin that guy would’ve have been asleep, right? You remember that, right? A head shot there and he’s down. He would’ve been down, definitely. This time he’s going down.”
Garcia believes that Maidana can beat Mayweather if he throws enough punches, but I believe that’s a dead end street for Maidana. He’s got to be able to box Mayweather at times instead of just going out and mindlessly throwing shots hoping one will connect for a knockout. There’s got to be a game plan behind it and I don’t see that.
“A lot of people think Maidana doesn’t even think, he just goes out swinging wild,” Garcia said. “Maidana thinks a lot. This time we’re switching punches around where a fighter like Maidana is going to give trouble to the best boxer in the world.”
Garcia and Maidana seem pretty desperate and when a fighter is desperate like that, they don’t think clearly. Maidana and Garcia’s desperation is going to cause them to make mistakes next Saturday night, and Mayweather will be ready to take advantage of those mistakes.
Mayweather is a counter puncher, and he thrives on fighting all-action fighters like Maidana, because he can take advantage of all their mistakes.
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