By Dan Ambrose: After four and half years out of the ring, former two division world champion Marcos Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) is returning to boxing, and he’s targeting fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Saul Canelo Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao, and Amir Khan. We still don’t know if Maidana is seriously interested in coming back. If he was serious, he should have at least gotten in shape before he called out the aforementioned fighters.
This writer could see Canelo taking the fight with Maidana right now if he didn’t just fight a badly over-matched Rocky Fielding in his last fight on December 15. At this point, Canelo can’t afford to fight another hopelessly over-matched opponent if he wants to be taken seriously by boxing fans. That’s not to say that Canelo won’t fight Maidana in the near future if he gets in shape and puts together three or four wins over soft jobs. It’s easy to imagine Golden Boy Promotions getting excited about a fight between Canelo and Maidana at that point, but not right now. Maidana still needs to lose weight, and make a comeback. If Maidana can pad his record with a small handful of fluff opponents, it’s possible that Canelo would be interested in fighting him.
Maidana is so overweight that it’s laughable for him to be calling out anybody. Maidana looks in such bad shape, you have to be a little concerned about his long term health. Carrying around the kind of weight that Maidana is right now, it can’t be good for him.
Looking badly overweight, the Maidana, 35, posted a bizarre video of himself working on the mitts with presumably his training team. He then called out Mayweather, Khan, Canelo and Pacquiao.
If one of the guys Maidana called out doesn’t care about how they’re going to be perceived by the boxing public, then it’s possible that the Argentinean could get Canelo, Khan, Pacquiao or Mayweather to agree to fight him.
Maidana hasn’t fought since losing to Mayweather by a 12 round unanimous decision on September 13, 2014.
Here’s what Maidana said in a video posted by Fighthype on Tuesday:
“Floyd, the first fight, I beat you. The second fight, I knocked your tooth out, and now all that is missing is a third fight. I’m here for my return. Khan, Canelo, Manny Pacquiao, I’m right here.”
Maidana’s punches looked powerful in his video today, but he also looks like he’s well over 200 lbs. How powerful will Maidana’s punches be after he burns through all that fat he’s carrying around?
As heavy as Maidana is now, it’s extremely doubtful that he could make 147 ever again without draining himself to the point where he would badly weakened. Even 154 would be a very hard weight for him to get back down to.
Maidana would be taken more seriously by those fighters if he wasn’t so fat when he posted his message. Maidana looks like he’s well over his old fighting weight of 147 lbs. Maidana appears to be well over 200 pounds right now, possibly as high as 230 lbs. However, he can probably take the fight off if he works hard for the next six to eight months to burn off the fat, but he’s obviously not going to get a big money fight against Mayweather, Khan, Canelo or Pacquiao in his first fight back. You never know with Mayweather though. We never thought Mayweather would start exclusively facing MMA guys in boxing events. The fighters that Mayweather has been beating lately have zero chance of beating him. If Mayweather wants an guaranteed win against a real boxer, then the out of shape Maidana would be the guy he should be looking for. With that said, there would be no interest from the boxing public in seeing Mayweather beat up on an out of shape 36-year-old Maidana. That’s a fight that wouldn’t sell. The same goes for Pacquiao or Canelo vs. Maidana. There’s no market for a fight between any of those guys against a retired fighter like Maidana.
Maidana has been posting a lot of pictures on his Instagram with with drinks in his hands. He’s obviously been living well. The question is can Maidana go back to the spartan lifestyle that he would need to for him to be successful in his come back? We don’t know if Maidana is just looking to get a big payday fight against someone, and then go back into retirement the way Mayweather has been doing lately with his own career. Mayweather is no longer an active fighter. He occasionally fights MMA guys in circus events, and gets nice paydays due to boxing fans still being interested in seeing him fight, even against guys with no experience in boxing. If Maidana wants to come back to fight a welterweight, he’ll need to watch what he eats and drinks for a long period of time, because he’s not going to be able to take off all the weight he’s carrying around right now in an eight week draining camp. It would be good for Maidana if he could get a fight against Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight at 168 pounds. That would be a much doable weight for Maidana than for him to drain down to 147 to try and fight Khan, Maidana or Pacquiao.
Maidana might have a decent shot at getting a fight against Khan or Pacquiao. Those guys might go for a fight against Maidana. Pacquiao is fighting a shot Adrien Broner on SHOWTIME PPV this month on January 19. That’s an awful fight, since Broner isn’t a top level fighter anymore at 147. Maidana beat Broner easily six years ago in 2013 in defeating him by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. Maidana could probably beat Broner now if he wasn’t weight drained in coming back down to 147. That’s not a compliment to Maidana. It’s more of a statement on how bad Broner has been looking for the last five years.
It’s unclear whether Maidana has burned through all the money that he’s made during his boxing career. When you see a fighter coming back after many years out of the ring, it sends alarm bells ringing that they’ve blown their money. Maidana made a lot of money that arguably should last him for the rest of his life. It would be shocking if Maidana blew through his fortune in just 4 1/2 years.
After being out of the ring all these years, Maidana isn’t someone that the newer boxing fans are familiar with. For Canelo or Mayweather to make good money fighting Maidana, they would need the older fans to be interested in that fight. The younger boxing fans wouldn’t know who Maidana is. All they’d know is some fat guy wants to fight Mayweather and Canelo. It would be tough to sell a fight between Mayweather and Maidana to the U.S boxing fans. Maybe if the fight took place in Argentina, they could make some money. Mayweather’s last fight against little known Japanese kick boxer Tenshin Nasukawa took place in Japan, and wasn’t shown in the U.S. Mayweather made $9 million for the fight against Tenshin. Perhaps if there’s a millionaire with deep pockets in Argentina, they might want to pay Mayweather a ton of money to fight Maidana. It’s doubtful though. There are so many more deserving fighters out there that would be better fits for Mayweather to fight rather than Maidana.
Maidana made a lot of money in his two fights against Mayweather in 2014. Those were the last two fights of Maidana’s career. With the money that Maidana made in those matches, you can understand why he wants to come back to fight Mayweather again. It’s good money, and it doesn’t matter if Maidana loses. He’ll still get a good payday. The only ones that loses are the boxing fans, who will pay to see a competitive fight, and will likely watch a mismatch.
If Maidana can’t lure one of the top fighters to face him, then he needs to get back in shape and try and slowly work his way back into position for a big payday. Unfortunately, Maidana isn’t a spring chicken at 35, and there’s no guaranteed that he can get back down to his old fighting weight at 147. At 154, Maidana will be too short, small and slow to compete against the bigger and faster fighters in that weight class. Those guys are more athletic than Maidana, and they don’t let their weight get out of control in between fights like we’ve seen with Maidana.
