By Aragon Garcia: Marcos Maidana’s team states that the Argentinian knockout artist has his weight down to 190 pounds from 215 lbs, and he plans on making his comeback in June at junior middleweight around 152 or 153 lbs before eventually going back down to 147 to campaign in that weight class, according to Fighthype.
The 35-year-old Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) has made good progress in trimming the weight off since he started training for his comeback a couple of months ago. Maidana has quickly taken off 25 lbs of weight. The hardest part will be for Maidana to lose the last 25 lbs to get down to his old weight of 165 lbs. That’s the weight that Maidana would rehydrate to after making weight at 147 lbs for his fights at welterweight.
As long as Maidana doesn’t lose too much muscle in melting down to the mid-160s, he should be just as powerful as he was in the past. Muscles have memory. Despite being inactive for the last five years since retiring after his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their rematch in September 2014, there’s no reason why Maidana can’t be an immediate threat to the top welterweights in the division. Maidana is working with Manny Pacquiao’s old strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza to lose the weight, and stay strong.
While some boxing fans feel that Maidana should target junior middleweight (154) for his new weight class, his training team believe that he can make 147 and continue to fight in that division as he did in the past. Maidana used to blow up to the 180s and 190s in between fights. Where he’s at right now isn’t a weight that he hasn’t been at before. Maidana has never had a problem going from the 180s to 147 in the past, which makes it likely that he’ll have little problems getting the weight off for him to make the 154 lb limit for his comeback fight in June and then eventually 147.
Maidana has never been known for his hand speed during his career. His speed and punching power is comparable to IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. Maidana, 5’7″, isn’t as tall as the 5’9 1/2″ Spence, and he doesn’t have his long reach. Maidana is roughly the same height as several of the other elite welterweights in the division in Shawn Porter [5’7″], Keith Thurman [5’7″], Adrien Broner [5’7″], Danny Garcia [5’8″] and Terence Crawford [5’8″]. None of those fighters are blazing fast either. Crawford has some speed, but he’s not another Mayweather in the hand speed department.
Once Maidana gets a few tune-ups under his belt, he’ll be a great option for fights against Manny Pacquiao, Adrien Broner, Thurman, Spence and Danny Garcia. A rematch against Broner is a no-brainer.
