By Dan Ambrose: Marcos Maidana has lost 60 pounds in training for his upcoming exhibition match next month on April 18 against former kickboxing champion Jorge Acero Cali. The 36-year-old former 2 division world champion Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs) is reportedly testing himself to see how he does against a non-boxer.
Even with all the weight that Maidana has lost, he still looks to be 30 lbs overweight from his top form when he fought at 147. If Maidana is seriously considering making a comeback in the sport of boxing, he’ll need to lose more weight. He’s not big enough to compete in the 154 and 160-pound divisions.
Maidana hasn’t fought in 5 1/2 years since losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2014. That was the second consecutive loss for Maidana against Mayweather, and he made a lot of money from the two fights.
Maidana can still make excellent money if he can prove that he’s capable of a high level. That’s going to be hard for the Argentinian to do, as he’s been out of the ring for close to 6 years, and he’s let himself get obese.
Most boxing fans would agree that Maidana retired way too early at age 30 six years ago, as he was still a major player in the sport. Maidana was at the top of his game when walked away from boxing following his second loss to Mayweather, and he could have made a lot more money had he stuck it out.
Maidana testing the waters
No longer needing to fight for a living, Maidana retired as a wealthy man in his native Argentina. He’s now being lured back to the sport for a potential comeback depending on how well he looks against Cali.
The 6’0, 230 lb Cali is A LOT bigger than Maidana. There fight is a five-rounder at the cruiserweight limit, which isn’t surprising given how big Maidana has looked lately. Before Maidana lost the 60 lbs, he looked morbidly obese and unhealthy in appearance.
Initially, it was thought that Maidana was taking the fight against the 46-year-old Cali as a farewell to his boxing fans, but now it’s possible that he may continue on if he looks good in beating Cali. Maidana will need to lose a lot more weight for him to get back down to 147 because that’s where the money fights are at for him.
He doesn’t have the frame to take on the likes of Canelo Alvarez or Gennadiy Golovkin at middleweight. Those are two fighters that Maidana could make a lot of money fighting, but he’s never fought at middleweight. For Maidana to go up against GGG or Canelo, it would be an insanely bad idea, and it would upset a lot of boxing fans if it wasn’t competitive.
Marcos Maidana needs to shine against Acero Cali
It would be in Maidana’s best interest to unload on his heavy artillery early on Acero Cali to get him out of there as quickly as possible on April 18th, as he could run out of gas if the fight goes past 3 rounds.
It’s a five-round scheduled exhibition, so there’s no worries about Maidana gassing out really badly, but he still needs to shine for him the boxing public to pay attention to him. The last thing Maidana needs is for him to struggle against a 47-year-old kickboxer, who doesn’t possess his pedigree.
Being out of the ring for over five years, it’s unknown how Maidana will look. While he’s still young at 36, the fact that he’s been out of the ring for so long, he’s not expected to look sharp. Moreover, the way that Maidana has let his weight get out of control, you can’t expect too much from him.
At 5’7″, Maidana has let himself get too heavy during his time out of the ring. Losing 60 lbs for anyone is tough, but for a professional, it’s a tremendous amount of weight to take off to get ready for an athletic event.
Maidana vs. Broner 2 rematch would be a great fight
If Maidana does look good in beating Acero Cali on April 18, then a potentially interesting fight to make would be a rematch with former 4 division world champion Adrien ‘The Problem’ Broner. Maidana defeated Broner by a 12 round unanimous decision seven years ago in 2013 in a fight in which Marcos dropped him twice.
The win over Broner earned Maidana a huge money fight against Mayweather, which unfortunately was the beginning of the end for his career. After making big money in two fights against Mayweather, Maidana walked away from the sport a happy and wealthy fighter.
A lot of boxing fans felt that Maidana beat Mayweather in their first fight in May 2014. Maidana wore Mayweather down with pressure and kept him pinned to the ropes for virtually the entire 12 round fight.
Maidana is rumored to have run out of money after six years of retirement, but who knows why his real reasons are for his comeback. His fight with Acero Cali is an exhibition match. We’ll see where Maidana goes from there if he wins, and looks good in doing so.
Maidana can make good money fighting the likes of Maidana or Errol Spence Jr., but he’ll need to look spectacular against Acero Cali for him to have a shot at either of those fighters. The fact that Maidana still looks 30 lbs overweight with a month to go before the Cali fight isn’t a good sign. Maidana can probably take the remainder of the weight off if he wanted to, but the fight is at cruiserweight. He doesn’t want to fight a 200 lb guy weighing just 140 to 160.