Floyd Money Mayweather(WBC, WBA Welterweight Champion, and WBC Light Middleweight Champion) vs Marcos El Chino Maidana - In a rarity, both Floyds Welterweight and Light Middleweight titles will be on the line for this one. Their first fight back in May was competitive enough that a case could be made for Maidana winning, and coupled with the GloveGate controversy, the rematch is on this weekend. Since weve pretty well covered the strengths and weaknesses of the fighters in the first matchup, this blog will be more about the adjustments both fighters can make and then the prediction rather than the usual breakdown. First, on the part of Floyd, the biggest question mark is whether or not the early rounds of the first fight were the first real signs of slippage in his game, or just poor gameplanning for the opponent. In my view, it was probably a little bit of both. Anyone who has seen Maidana fight before knows that he is a relentless fighter that does not stop throwing punches even when taking punishment, and Floyd to an extent I believe was used to fighters that might play at being aggressive, but would not maintain that mindset after eating a few counters or it wasnt their natural style. So I think Maidanas mental toughness in that regard surprised him. I also think Father Time has taken a small toll on Floyd to where he cant use his legs quite as freely as in the past. Floyd has talked that he doesnt need to make any adjustments because he got the win in their first encounter. In my view, thats probably just a line, but well see come fight night. The adjustments that I feel would help him in fight two is simply to give more movement and stay off the ropes and to get off the ropes quickly when he is there either through clinching, movement, or a quick combination/slide off strategy. Floyd can fight effectively off the ropes, but against a relentless opponent like Maidana, its playing into his hands to try and play that game with him as the first fight demonstrated. For Maidana, there are some more adjustments that he can make within his style that can help matters. He generally has a wild style of punching, but there is a method to the madness that isnt there with a lot of fighters that employ such a style. However, in the first fight he didnt use one of his better tricks often, which is to throw a nice straight shot as a change-up punch at times. Floyd in the early going had trouble with the weird angles of punches coming at him, but he somewhat adapted as the fight went on(and he started moving more). But if Maidana can mix some more technically sound punches in with his wild shots, hell be harder to predict and adapt to. Also, while Im not a fan of the All Access series on Showtime in general, I do feel that Robert Garcia was accurate on the show in saying that Maidana needs to go to Floyds body more. He went there a decent bit in fight one, but its harder to cover your entire body even for a great defensive fighter like Floyd, it makes the head shots harder to predict, and going downstairs more often will make it harder for Floyd to use his legs. And while still throwing a lot of punches, Maidana did slow down noticeably as the fight went into the later rounds. Im not sure that its even physically possible to improve that aspect of his game at this point, but if he can get better conditioning to throw nearly 100 punches per round later on in the fight, hell wear on Floyd more with the pressure. Lastly, having gloves hes comfortable with using or at least used to wearing if his preferred gloves arent available for whatever reasons would naturally be nice. My prediction is a pretty similar fight to their first encounter where Floyd wins a close decision. I think both fighters will make some of the adjustments mentioned above, but Maidana I think needs to dominate or get a stoppage to win with all the money behind Floyd, and its unlikely that either happens. Hell press Floyd with his workrate, make a great effort, and probably make a case for himself as the winner again, but Floyd comes on down the stretch again and does just enough to get the nod on the cards. Heres the GP Promo Video for the fight, which always delivers goodness: https://youtube/watch?v=0J2sgKCG4ug
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 03:16:55 +0000
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