(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Chris Williams: ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas is concerned that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) could have problems tomorrow night against the big punching Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31 KO’s) if Mayweather forgets about his offense and just concentrates on trying to make Maidana miss all night long. Atlast thinks Maidana will take advantage of Mayweather’s emphasis on defense by swarming him, staying close to him, and overwhelming him with shots.
Atlas thinks that Maidana is going to force the best out of Mayweather on Saturday night by throwing so many hard punches that it’s going to make Mayweather shift through his gears in order to get the victory. It’s going to be difficult for Mayweather to beat Maidana if he stands on the outside looking to pot shot him like he did against a passive Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and a slow Robert Guerrero. Those fighters like Mayweather do what he does best. Maidana will at least be giving it his all the entire time to make a fight of it.
“Floyd Mayweather gets in close with the thing he’s most good at – his defense,” Atlas said to ESPN. “His shoulder roll defense; he makes you miss, and disappears on you. But with a guy like Maidana, who’s all in, and he’s throwing a million punches at you, you can say Maidana’s going to swarm him – like he did with Adrien Broner, who tries to emulate [Mayweather], and of course he’s not even close, but he tries to do that. He’s [Maidana] going to swarm Mayweather when he goes defensive too much and have these opportunities to steal some moments, and maybe score some longer punches. Sometimes those longer punches can hurt somebody who is technically perfect as Mayweather tries to do. Maybe this is the guy to bring a different Mayweather. He’s a guy that is bringing so much hurt, so much aggression, and so many punches. Maybe this is a fight where Mayweather has to bite down a little bit and maybe get a knockout.”
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