Maidana is hungry and ready, says Mayweather

By Boxing News - 04/29/2014 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) believes that Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) is hungry for the success and he thinks that same hunger is going to motivate Maidana to fight at a higher level than he ever has before in his fights. Believe me, Maidana is going to need to fight at an extremely high level for him to beat Mayweather.

Maidana isn’t in Mayweather’s league in the talent department for sure, and this fight could turn out to be an embarrassing defeat for Maidana if he doesn’t get something going within the first 1-3 rounds. If Maidana isn’t able to find any success during the first three rounds, this fight is going to likely turn into a sickening mismatch like the last one we saw with Mayweather clowning Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for 12 rounds last September.

I’m not sure right now if that’s going to be humanely possible for Maidana to do that without him getting in a lucky shot. It’s going to need to be a lucky shot because Mayweather is so good at blocking or getting out of the way of incoming from his opponents. Maidana is kind of in the same boat Juan Manuel Marquez was when he last fought Manny Pacquiao. Marquez wasn’t going to win that fight, but he got that lucky shot in and was able to knock Pacquiao out cold in the 6th round to get the win.

Up until recently, Maidana was kind of the forgotten man in the welterweight division. Maidana had been beaten by Amir Khan and Devon Alexander in the not so distant past, and he at the point in his career where he was used by Adrien Broner as someone that he felt he beat and look good doing so. Maidana’s subsequent win over Broner resulted in him getting the opportunity to fight Mayweather, and receive the biggest payday of his career.

“Maidana is hungry, he’s ready and he has a great knockout ratio,” Mayweather said. “It’s all about keeping composure and sticking to the game plan. It’s the best fighting the best. I’m glad he believes in himself and that’s what it’s all about. It’s champion versus champion and country versus country.”

Mayweather seems to be sending mixed messages. Recently, Mayweather’s been talking about wanting to punch with Maidana in order to beat him at his own game, but he might be having a change of mind now. Mayweather saying he’s going to stick to the game plan tells me that he’s not going to go toe-to-toe with Maidana in this fight. If it’s about sticking to a game plan, then Mayweather must have some kind of idea of boxing Maidana on Saturday night rather than slugging with him. It doesn’t take much of a game plan for Mayweather to go out and punch with Maidana. That’s why I see Mayweather going out and doing what he usually does by boxing, and keeping out of the way of his opponent on Saturday night.

Maidana’s hunger will help him up to a certain point in the fight, but he’s going to need more than just plain hunger for him to get passed Mayweather.



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