Maidana puts in grueling workout before ending comeback bid

By Boxing News - 04/25/2019 - Comments

Image: Maidana puts in grueling workout before ending comeback bid

By Aragon Garcia: Earlier on Thursday, former two division world champion Marcos Maidana ended his comeback bid, and stopped training to return to his home in beautiful Argentina. Maidana had a three-fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions that would have paid him a great deal of money in his comeback, beginning with a $1.5 million fight this summer.

Fighthype filmed what they believe was Maidana’ final workout before calling it quits with his comeback. The workout looked hellish in terms of how grueling it was. For former high school football players that remember the double day works, Maidana’s workout on a steep hill with strength & conditioning coach Alex Ariza was a gut-wrenching ordeal with Maidana literally crawling up the mountain as he exhausted himself. It’s no wonder Maidana gave up on his comeback. To go through the workouts he was going through to lose the weight in a hurry, it was too much for him to deal with.

YouTube video

With the money that Maidana was set to make in his comeback, it’s possible he could change his mind after he’s had time to think it over. It could come down to how badly he needs the money. For the average person that is hurting for money, and working two jobs in Southern California just trying to make ends meet, they would probably more than willing to go through one of Alex Ariza’s grueling boot camps in order to make millions and live comfortably for the rest of their lives after taking the three fights of the PBC contract.

In Maidana’s case, he’s enjoyed the fine life of a wealthy person living well in Argentina. Who knows how much Maidana still has of the riches he made from his two fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2014. If Maidana still has enough money to live off for the rest of his life, then yeah, it’s understandable why he would end his comeback bid. If not, it sounds crazy for him to end his comeback when he needs that money. He could have always told PBC that he needs more time to take the weight off a slower without going through such grueling workouts in order to lose rapidly rather than slowly.

Maidana is supposed to be returning to the ring in June. He’s got all of May to lose weight. He’s in the low 180s. He would need to lose around 15 pounds in May for him to be at a good weight for him to drain down to the 151 or 152. It would be hard to make that weight if he’s not at least down to 170 by the end of May, because dehydrate from there to get to 151 or 152. He’s already lost so much weight. The weight comes off easily at first, but it gets harder to drop weight as time goes by without working really hard the way Ariza was working him.

Mike Coppinger said this about Maidana’s comeback bid:

“Maidana, who retired following two fights with Floyd Mayweather in 2014, earned the two biggest paydays of his career for those bouts and pushed Money to the limit in first fight. Was slated to settle back at welterweight.”

This is disappointing news that Maidana won’t return to the ring. A lot of boxing fan that remember him during his best years of his career were looking forward to seeing him return to the ring and fight the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Adrien Broner, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Errol Spence. Those would have been big fights that would have made Maidana massive amounts of money. For him to walk away without fighting any of them, it makes you think that he wasn’t willing to go through another grueling workout.