By Aragon Garcia: Former two division world champion Marcos Maidana looked incredibly powerful and sharp in his first day of training for his planned comeback in 2019. In working out on the mitts with his trainer, the young looking 35-year-old Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) showed good punching power, the same ferocity that he’d always known him for during his career.
Marcos looks about 30 to 40 pounds overweight right now, which isn’t a lot of weight. Tyson Fury lost over 100 lbs, and he was able to get back to his old level to give WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder the fight of his life last December.
Maidana is training at Mayweather’s Gym in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2014, Maidana fought Mayweather twice, losing close, controversial decisions each time. A trilogy fight between Mayweather and Maidana would be HUGE for boxing, especially if Marcos can get a couple of quick wins under his belt before the fight takes place. Maidana is expected to fight his first comeback match at junior middleweight at 154, and then go from there to get down to 147 for a big fight in that weight class. Manny Pacquiao would be the ideal opponent for Maidana. If not him, then Errol Spence Jr. in the near future.
Contrary to the comments that some boxing fans have been making about Maidana looking badly overweight, his weight doesn’t look that bad right now. This is roughly how Maidana looked in between his fights during his career. Maidana would always blow up in weight between fights. He was someone that put on weight easily, but he would then take it off just as easily during training camp, and come into his fights a powerful fighter weighing in the 160s.
There will likely be a couple of tune-up fights for Maidana to help lose the weight, and sharpen up to get the rust out before he goes after the top dogs at 147. That’s the division that Maidana is gunning for. He’ll be turning 36 in July, so he’s got a lot of time left in his career. Power is the last thing to go for a fighter, and Maidana still looks massively powerful. He’s never been known for his hand speed. It’s always been Maidana’s punching power that has been his bread and butter during his career.
Before retiring in 2014, Maidana had wins over Adrien Broner, Victor Ortiz, Josesito Lopez, Erik Morales, Victor Cayo, Jesus Soto Karass Petr Petrov and DeMarcus Corley. Maidana was beaten by Andriy Kotelnik by a controversial 12 round split decision in February 2009. Maidana’s 12 round decision loss to Amir Khan in December 2010 was a fight that could have been a knockout win for him if the referee Joe Cortez wouldn’t have gotten in between him so frequently while he was trying to finish off a badly hurt Khan in the 10th. In looking at that fight again, it’s clear that Maidana would have knocked Khan out if Cortez hadn’t repeatedly put himself in between the two fighters when the 10th round after Amir was badly hurt.
For boxing fans that doubt whether Maidana can get back down to 147 in 2019, they don’t remember him how he looked in between fights during his career. Maidana ALWAYS let his weight balloon up between fights, and he would take all the weight off during the two month training camps. Maidana has a lot more time now than just two months to take off the weight. It’s very possible that Maidana will be back down to 147 by July at the latest. Whether he’ll be ready to take on a good welterweight at that time is another question. It’s not just the weight that Maidana has to deal with. He needs to get the ring rust out, and get used to getting hit again. There’s also the conditioning that Maidana will need to work on. He’s been sitting idle since he retired, smoking cigars, eating good food, and enjoying his life. It’ll take him a while to get his conditioning back to where it was five years ago when he last fought against Mayweather in 2014.
Maidana will likely lose his weight much faster Tyson Fury did in his comeback. Maidana isn’t nearly as heavy as Fury was when he started his recent comeback, and the weight seems to fly off Maidana quicker. He’s capable of working harder than Fury based on how he looks right now. When Fury started his comeback in 2018, he looked morbidly obese. Maidana doesn’t look anywhere near that level.
There’s been speculation from boxing fans that Maidana will return to his old trainer Robert Garcia to workout with him in Oxnard, California. However, that might not happen. Garcia has a lot of different fighters that he’s training right now, and he might not have the time to devote to working with a guy that needs to lose a lot of weight like Maidana. He needs a trainer that has time to work with him exclusively, and not be tied down giving constant interviews to Youtube interviewers, talking about the old days.
The fight that is almost surely to happen is Maidana vs. Pacquiao. That’s the one that is being talked about by fans, and will likely happen. Pacquiao-Maidana will surely be on pay-per-view, and it’ll make them both a lot of money. Hopefully when/if that happens, Maidana doesn’t retire again from boxing like he did after his second fight with Mayweather. Maidana needs to continue fighting and make the most of the time that he has left with his career. Maidana’s punching power will carry him far if he stays busy, and doesn’t disappear after gets a big payday fight against Pacquiao. Maidana has his golden years to enjoy his money, but while he’ still young, he should be fighting as often as he can for his retirement. In addition to Pacquiao-Maidana fight, there’s a lot of money that can be made by Maidana for a rematch against Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner on SHOWTIME pay-per-view. Those two were involved in an exciting fight six years ago in 2013 in which Maidana dealt Broner his first career loss. A rematch between Maidana and Broner right no would be a huge fight for the boxing world.