By Raj Parmar: The third episode of All Access: Mayweather-Maidana premiered yesterday at the Beachers Madhouse at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. A few interesting items were included in the show that reveals what is going on inside each of the fighter’s camps.
The episode started off with former Maidana strength and conditioning trainer Alex Ariza showing up to Floyd’s training camp to watch him train. Mayweather claimed Maidana is overweight in the mid 160’s with the fight at that point still a week away, and he should have kept Ariza in order to get the weight down.
However later in the episode Maidana claimed to be weighing 155, which obviously contradicts Floyd’s claims. After seeing Maidana at the press conference yesterday, he did not look overweight and any suggestions that he was having a hard time making weight was likely misinformation or Mayweather giving himself a mental edge by visioning a Maidana that is struggling with weight.
Team Maidana also finally opened up about the selection of Kenny Bayless as the referee for the rematch and feels he is going to have a negative effect on the fight for Marcos; stating that they know he is going to call for the fighters to break every time Maidana gets in close to damage Floyd. Maidana’s trainer Robert Garcia kept the camera out of view for Maidana’s sparring near the end of the show as he is developing a new method of attack for Maidana to use in this fight that wasn’t used in the first fight.
If Garcia is worried that Bayless won’t let Maidana work on the inside, he may have prepared Marcos to attack from a distance on Floyd. In the past all fighters aiming to catch Floyd from the outside have always missed significantly more than they landed. Therefore if they are working on hurting Floyd from a range, it will be interesting to see how effective that can possibly be as Maidana’s speed is not comparable to the elusive Mayweather’s.
Floyd on the other hand allowed clips on himself sparring to be shown to a national audience for the first time in his 18 year career. He displayed quick, accurate combinations in the session however it is surprising he let this be shown as he has always been very, very strict on having his sparring filmed. Floyd does serve as the executive producer of the show therefore showing the first time ever sparring footage would definitely help bring in viewers to the program.
Lastly Floyd stated he is very relaxed in this training camp, and I believe this to be true as when I spoke with Floyd at the press conference on Wednesday he seemed extremely laid back. There is no disputing Mayweather dominated the last half of the first fight, therefore he is probably feeling that he has figured out Maidana and that this time the entire fight should play out like the second half of the first fight. As Garcia and Maidana seem to be adjusting their battle plans a bit, we’ll find out on Saturday if it will take away the comfort and confidence Floyd is carrying with him as the fight quickly approaches.
*Follow Raj_Parmar_11 for quick updates on the happenings in Las Vegas for fight week and unofficial scoring on fight night; and detailed live notes from the weigh-in and fight night will be posted on boxingnews24.com.
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