Marcos Maidana returning to the ring in 2020

Image: Marcos Maidana returning to the ring in 2020
By Boxing News - 01/23/2020 - Comments

By Mike Lieberman: The big punching former 2 division world champion Marcos Maidana says he’s planning on coming out of retirement in 2020 for initially an exhibition match on April 18 against kick boxing champion Jorge ‘Acero’ Cali on April 18 in Buenos Aires.

From there, Maidana and his Chino Maidana Promotions company will decide the direction he wants to take for his next fight, according to ESPN MX. It would be interesting to see how far Maidana can go with his comeback. A fight against Canelo Alvarez would be a huge affair, and exciting if Maidana can regain his old form.

Maidana has the power to be successful

Still young at 36, Maidana (35-5, 21 KOs) attempted a comeback in 2019, but he gave up after a grueling training camp. It was a case of too much too soon. He was in a mad rush to lose a massive amount of weight, and he ended up giving up his comeback bid. With Maidana’s punching power alone, he be successful with his comeback if he’s able to return to 147. There’s good money Maidana can make in fights against Adrien Broner, Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan.

Maidana likely would have good money if he’d been able to return to the ring last year. As it is, Maidana lost a tremendous amount of weight, and started to resemble his old self at the time that he gave up.

Maidana hasn’t fought since losing his second fight to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2014. Despite giving Mayweather a harder fight than Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, Maidana chose to walk away from the sport. It was a questionable move on his part, because he still had a lot left in the tank, and it could have made a lot more money.

“We will see how we are doing on April 18 and then Chino Maidana Promotions will give me the options,” said Maidana to ESPN.mx. “I’m going to take the “Steel” Cali as a fight, not as an exhibition, so we’re ready. We are going to see what weight we can give and we are going to see the rivals. I have never chosen rivals, [and] I will not do it now, whatever,” Maidana said.

Maidana going down to 154

The plan is for Maidana to get down to 154 after 4 months of training, but it’s unclear if he’ll be at that weight for his fight on April 18. Maidana has always been able to lose a lot of weight during his camps, but it’s unknown what his starting point is right now.

If he’s over 200 lbs, then it’s not realistic that he’ll be able to cut that much weight to make 154 by April. Maidana has looked huge in photos of him in the past, and he’s clearly been living the good life with the millions that he made against Mayweather.