Robert Garcia wants Maidana to fight Mayweather a third time if he beats him rather than facing Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 09/11/2014 - Comments

_DSC0118(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Chris Williams: If trainer Robert Garcia gets his way his fighter Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) will look to face Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) a third time if Maidana defeats him this Saturday night rather than to move forward and fight WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in a unification match.

Garcia rates Mayweather as a better fighter than Pacquiao, and he believes he’s the bigger fight than fighting the 35-year-old Pacquiao.

Mayweather and Maidana will be fighting each in their rematch this Saturday on Showtime pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“I truly believe that Mayweather is the better fighter but Pacquiao is far more difficult to prepare for,” Garcia said via RingTV.com. “Pacquiao is just a different kind of fighter because of the way he fights. He has that in-and-out movement, jumping from one side to another and throwing punches from all angles.”

Pacquiao is more active in the ring because of his movement and the angles he shows, but he’s also easier to hit because he frequently comes forward looking to engage. It’ll be a very tough fight for Pacquiao to face a slugger like Maidana at this point in Pacquiao’s career because he doesn’t hold and his chin doesn’t seem to be what it once was.

If Maidana is able to walk through Pacquiao’s best shots, which is likely given Pacquiao’s long 5-year dry spell of no knockouts, then we could see Pacquiao get knocked out unless he runs for 12 rounds.

“(If we win), I would rather Chino face Mayweather for a third time than fight Manny Pacquiao,” Garcia said.

Picking Mayweather out instead of Pacquiao is just good business sense for Garcia. A Mayweather fight would likely bring in more pay-per-view buys than a fight against Pacquiao, whose PPV numbers aren’t what they once were. Besides that, if Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank insists on having a Pacquiao-Maidana fight take place in Macao, China, which is a distinct possibility, you can bet the pay-per-view numbers will be even lower.

Arum is trying to open China up for pay-per-view fights, and that’s why he’s been staging a lot of fights over there. Maidana would likely need to agree to fight Pacquiao in Macao for that fight to happen, and who knows how many fewer PPV buys would result from that.

In contrast, a third fight between Mayweather and Maidana would likely bring in huge pay-per-view buys because of boxing fans wanting to see if Mayweather could avenge his loss. It would be a huge fight in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.



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