Floyd Mayweather Jr has had September 13th on his calendar for a long time as the date for his next bout, the only question was who would he face. Yesterday, Mayweather announced that he would be fighting Marcos Maidana for the second time, ending the debate as to who would be the next to fight the world’s pound for pound #1.
Other names were tossed around, but Maidana had the inside track with his performance against Mayweather last May, in their first match. One judge had it a draw, and the close fight won the near universal admiration of the fight world for the Argentinian. There were enough open questions about the fight and how Mayweather would do a second time around that this fight makes sense. From Mayweather’s perspective, it became trhe first choice when it was clear in the early going that Brit Amir Khan could not make the September date.
Mayweather was a big favorite at the sport books going into the first fight, and that should not change heading into September. The line could really go either way, a bit higher or a bit lower, but look for Mayweather to come in at roughly 5 to 1.
Maidana had a solid game plan heading into the first fight, and he executed it well. Mayweather certainly lost some of the early rounds and he was forced to make adjustments throughout the fight to claw his way back into it. Maidana came into the biggest fight of his life and fought the best fight of his life, and he still came up short. What more can he do in preparation for the second fight?
Whereas Floyd now has the first fight to think about and study. For all his brash public persona, Mayweather and company are a very cerebral boxing crew that is sure to pick that fight apart and find some of the weaknesses in Maidana that they didn’t exploit the first time around. Mayweather has a clear job to do, and that is to take Maidana out, like he should have done the first time.
Maidana is a long time veteran of big fights, and he upped his level over the past year, defeating Adrien Broner soundly and then the Mayweather fight. Can he up his level yet again? Most will bet against it.
