Marcos Maidana is about 2 weeks away from facing off against Floyd Mayweather in a rematch of their May 3rd bout this year. The fight was 12 hard fought rounds from both guys, with Maidana coming out aggressive and Floyd having to deal with a guy who challenged him the way Jose Luis Castillo did 12 years ago. In the end, Floyd walked away with a majority decision win, that saw many people disagree with the outcome. Some people, including the Showtime commentators had Maidana ahead in the middle stages of the fight. People even had him winning all together, but the official judges saw otherwise and awarded Floyd a hard fought victory.
Now, 4 months later, they will meet again. On September 13th, Maidana will get a crack at Floyd once again, to finish what he so rightfully feels he started. Earlier today, Maidana, his trainer Robert Garcia, Leonerd Ellerbe, and Golden Boy Senior VP Eric Gomez held a teleconference call to talk about the upcoming fight.
“Training camp is going great, we’ve been training hard, sparring good. Everyone’s been training hard, not just me and Marcos but everyone who makes Team Maidana.” said Robert Garcia
“Training hard, ready for September 13th.” Maidana joined in on the call.
Maidana is asked if he feels the only way he can beat Floyd is by knockout to which he says, “I think I can win by decision or knockout. The first fight was really close, it was a split decision but I feel I can box and win by a decision, though it would be nice to get a knockout.”
Maidana feels he needs to change a thing or two to be able to get the victory this time around. “In the first fight, I think the attack and pressure I made was very very good, but I didn’t do well with controlling my distance. I think I smothered a lot of my punches, I wasn’t able to catch him with good solid shots. I wasn’t able to fully extend my punches and that is one of the things that I’m working on. The fact I smothered my punches, I don’t really think I ever hurt him.”
Robert Garcia says on the topic, “We are fighting the way we did in the first fight, with pressure, but like Chino said, we need to have a little more distance, a little more control in his punches. We are working on that, his punches are thrown with a lot more accuracy, straighter punches. Our sparring partners are telling us that this time around, they feel the punches even harder than they did the first time.”
Garcia also notes that the first time around, they had a shorter training camp. Maidana’s girlfriend was expecting a child and he was in his native Argentina for quite some time. “We had about 5 weeks of training for the first fight, although Chino came already in shape, it was still not the same. This time he came here 9 weeks before the fight, we been training for a full camp. We’ve had a good 8 weeks of training, so I think its going to make a big difference”. Maidana himself also says this camp is much better than the first, with no distractions at all. “This time around I’m training to win, I know what to expect, I know Mayweather now, his style, what he brings to the table. I have more concentration, no excuses what so ever and adequate time.”
Maidana is asked how he feels about Floyd giving him a rematch, and was it because he truly deserved it, or was it because it has potential to sell a lot better due to the first fights outcome. “I really don’t think about that, I really don’t care. My concern is winning this fight, I want to beat him this time, I going to do everything it takes to beat him.” The topic of why the rematch is happening, is once again in cue. Maidana and Robert are questioned on if they feel Floyd took this fight because of the perception in the first fight, the outcome, and people thinking he lost, or if they feel Floyd could have moved on without the 2nd fight, and not losing credibility. “I think we got the rematch because it was a close fight. He probably wants to prove a point and demonstrate that he can beat me outright. It doesn’t really matter, what matters is that the rematch is happening and I’m happy”.
“I truly believe he had no other options, he was forced to give us the rematch. He was forced to fight Maidana, there were no other names out there for him to fight that could made sense. Maidana is the only fight that makes sense to sell PPV’s, to please the fans and he had no other options, that’s what I think,” said Robert Garcia. The referee for this fight will be Hall of Famer Kenny Bayless, who has officiated many of Floyd’s biggest fight. It is brought up whether or not the referee will play a role in the fight seing as how Floyd didn’t like how Tony Weeks did his job that night. “Maybe the referee is going to intervene, maybe he is going to be a big part of the fight, I really don’t know. I’m going to go in there and do my job.” Robert Garcia feels Tony Weeks did a good job in the 1st fight. He credits Bayless for being a great referee as well. “Nobody knew who the ref was, and Mayweather by starting to announce that Maidana was a dirty fighter, that Maidana was a MMA fighter. Well, that was pretty much already preparing whoever the ref was going to be to see that and to have that in his mind. I don’t think there is going to be a big difference because Kenny is a professional, he knows, he’s done a lot of fights and you know, he has to be fair”. Garcia is then asked if they would be using Power-Lock gloves for the 2nd fight, “I’m still not very sure, I know Maidana yesterday was still asking me if we had resolved that, I told him no, so honestly I still don’t know. We don’t have a problem with Power-Locks, we already trained in them just in case”.
Leonard Elliberbe then cuts in and says, “Yes, Marcos will be fighting in Power-Lock gloves”.
“I was able to force him, I was able to force him to stand in front of me and fight. It had a lot to do with conditioning. The times that he decided to box is because I let him. I let him get away. I let him be able to box and move. I think that I did well in forcing him to fight because of the pressure I put on him. This time around I am not going to get tired. I’m going to be on him from the opening bell, and I think that’s going to force him to fight,” said Maidana on how he would stylistically change for the 2nd fight. He has said before that he did indeed get tired in the first bout and now he has trained better so that it doesn’t happen again, and he can put pressure on Mayweather throughout the whole fight.
Before the rematch, Maidana had considered retirement, if he didn’t get a second fight with Mayweather. Recently Robert Garcia was also quoted saying that if Maidana does indeed lose again, he would not be surprised if Maidana retired. Maidana claims he only thought about taking time to rest, he was going to see what 2015 brought to him. “I was contemplating retiring for the rest of this year at least, and then see what next year would have brought me”.
Throughout the call Maidana says he really hopes Floyd stands in front of him and fights. He does not want Floyd running like a little bit**, “If Floyd runs like a little bit** I’m going to have to chase him around but I’m prepared to do that.”
