By Dan Ambrose: Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KO’s) has doubts that he’ll be selected for a second fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KO’s) for September 13th. Maidana doesn’t know for sure that he’s not going to get a rematch, but he suspects Mayweather will go in another direction and face someone else instead of him the next time he gets in the ring.
What Maidana working against him is that Mayweather’s father Floyd Sr. wasn’t too happy in watching his son get fouled repeatedly by Maidana in Mayweather’s 12 round majority decision win on May 3rd, and he’s told him not to fight Maidana again. Just how much persuasion Floyd Sr. has with Mayweather Jr. is debatable. If Mayweather wants the fight with Maidana, he’d likely take it no matter what his father says. But if he chooses not to give Maidana a second fight, it would be due to a combination of things rather than just one single issue such as him being fouled all night by him.
“He does not want to fight me, and I guess it’ll be another fighter,” Maidana said. “I’m waiting for him to give me a rematch. I do not want to fight with anyone other than Mayweather. I’m not interested in a rematch with Amir Khan. But I’m waiting for a big fight. I am 30, I can still enjoy my family and come back well rested within a year.”
Mayweather is still thinking it over, and he’s not made a decision. Maidana needs to make sure that he doesn’t scare Mayweather away by coming across as too desperate and needy, because the last thing Mayweather needs is to be hounded by yet another fighter.
Maidana not being open to fighting guys like Amir Khan isn’t a good thing. He needs to stay busy with his career if he wants to get a second shot against Mayweather or get other important fights. He can’t just kill his career because Mayweather might not be interested in fighting him again.
Even if Mayweather doesn’t fight him again, Maidana could still possibly get a popular fighter like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to fight him if he were to keep winning fights. Beating Khan would be good, as would taking on Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. Picking up a title would help Maidana, and at least improve his chances at getting a fight against Canelo, if nothing else.
It’s hard to really get excited about a Maidana-Mayweather rematch, though, because Mayweather fought Maidana’s fight and still beat him. If Mayweather were to fight him again, he would likely use his full defensive capabilities and not let Maidana lay a glove on him. What we would likely see is Maidana being out-boxed in the same way that Roberto Duran was in his rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard after Duran had won their first fight. Maidana fought the best fight he could against the 37-year-old Mayweather, who is clearly showing signs of slipping, and yet Maidana still couldn’t beat him.
If Maidana does come back, he’s going to have some tough fights ahead of him against the top welterweights in the division if that’s the direction he wants to go in. He probably won’t get another $1.5 million payday, but he can get close to that, and that obviously will help his eventual retirement.
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