Maidana could be back in late 2015 if he loses weight, says Garcia

By Boxing News - 07/05/2015 - Comments

maidana45By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Robert Garcia is hoping that #2 WBC, #3 WBA welterweight contender Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) will be back in training camp late in 2015 to get ready to fight someone. Garcia says Maidana has put on a lot of weight since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September, and says he’s got to take the weight off before he returns to the ring.

In a recent video of Maidana with Adrien Broner, Maidana looked like he was over 200lbs. Maidana is going to need to burn that fat off if he wants to be effective when he gets back in the ring. It wouldn’t work well if Maidana came back as a pudgy junior middleweight against guys like the 175+ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

There are some big fights available for Maidana when he does come back to the ring. It would be good to see him get a title shot against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, but that’s probably not a fight that Brook’s promoter Eddie Hearn would agree to. He’s pretty careful about the guys he matches against Brook. Maidana might be too good for Brook, so it probably won’t happen. Maidana can also wait out Mayweather until he gives up his WBA and WBC 147lb titles, and then go after one of those belts. That might be more realistic for Maidana than trying to get a fight against Brook.

“We would like to see him back in the ring this year,” Garcia said to Fighthype. “His manager told me he already started working out back home just to lose some weight, because he’s got some weight to lose.

Depending on how much weight Maidana takes off while training at home, it’s possible he could return to the ring in late 2015, but I doubt it. He’s put on too much weight for him to rush back into the ring in the next five months. I think Maidana can definitely take the weight off, but I imagine he might wind up weight drained if he returns to the ring that quickly after taking off a massive amount of weight. Maidana needs to get in shape and stay in shape before fighting in early 2016.

There are some interesting fights for Maidana in the welterweight division right now. He could face Shawn Porter, Amir Khan, and Danny Garcia and maybe WBA champ Keith Thurman. Fighting for Thurman would be interesting if Maidana is ready to chase Thurman if he has to. Thurman moves a lot when he faces guys that can punch.

There’s no way that Thurman would stay in the pocket against a guy like Maidana. No way. Thurman doesn’t have the chin to stay in there with a big puncher like Maidana. I think Maidana would knock Thurman out within four rounds if Thurman didn’t run from him.

“Take a year off you know, why not? He had three huge fights back to back within nine months you know; one with [Adrien] Broner and two with Mayweather,” Garcia said. “He made really good money; he looked really good in all three fights even though he lost to Mayweather he still looked really good. If he’s ready to come back this year I’m also ready but if not we can always wait for next year.”



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