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Life After Floyd: Where Does Marcos Maidana Go after Second Loss to Mayweather?

Marcos Maidana just gone 24 rounds with the best fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather. Though he came up short in both fights, he’s made a good enough showing of himself to warrant the question – what’s next for the Argentine slugger? Here, we examine what could be on the horizon.

Marcos Maidana v Floyd Mayweather Jr. Photo by Alex Menendez/Getty Images

At the end of the 12th round Saturday night, Marcos Maidana raised his arms in victory, just as he had a few months ago after his first encounter with Floyd Mayweather. This time however, there wasn’t quite as much conviction.

He probably knew that he was not about to get the decision. Mayweather had done exactly what nearly every boxing writer predicted him to do–he had made the necessary adjustments to Maidana’s style, and dominated the fight.

A loss to Mayweather is certainly no reason to hide in shame. In fact, Maidana made such a brilliant showing of himself in the first fight that he became only the second man to warrant a rematch with the pound-for-pound king. And it’s not like he lost every second of every round in the rematch. He had moments–particularly at the end of the third round when Mayweather swallowed a howitzer of a right hand and seemed buzzed.

Previous to the Mayweather encounters, Maidana had taken Mayweather’s “baby brother” and beat the living hell out of him, giving Adrien Broner his only loss. Even after the the two losses to Floyd, Maidana’s stock has never been higher.

What’s next for the Argentine scrapper?

For a guy like Maidana, the options are pretty wide open. For one thing, his style makes every fight a must-see event. He’s no mystery–he’s bringing the pain no matter who he’s fighting. The first guy on my list to match him up with is fellow Argentine and homicidal puncher Lucas Matthysse.

Apparently these two fought four times in the amateurs, with Maidana going 2-1 in the encounters. We need to see this fight. It has the makings of a Tarantino film, with blood spatter covering everyone from Jim “Chokehold” Gray to whichever Showtime actor who knows nothing about boxing they dragged there against his or her wishes.

“Can’t miss” is thrown out a lot, but this fight absolutely could not miss. These two simply don’t know how to back up, and they throw every power shot with horrific intentions. I would fear for the referee who had to clean up that crime scene of a fight.

MatthysseMaidana

Maidana, especially earlier in his career, was known as a pure brawler. He always had that puncher’s chance, but against better boxers, he was in trouble. Devon Alexander shut him out. Amir Khan nearly stopped him and befuddled him with combination punching before hanging on for the win. Hell, even shopworn Erik Morales experienced somewhat of a career resurrection by battling Maidana on nearly even terms, despite predictions of the need for a funeral service directly after the fight.

But he’s improved greatly in the last couple of years. Trainer Robert Garcia has Maidana coming in using a potent jab and setting up his wicked power shots. This guy is so crude he makes Ricardo Mayorga proud, but he’s actually a fairly intelligent fighter.

In Maidana’s fight with Broner, he was digging his left hand to Broner’s midsection, which was effective. But we didn’t realize (and neither did Broner) that he was setting Broner up the entire time. He finally aimed the left downstairs, only to actually come up with it in the form of a left hook, drilling Broner into the mat. It was the first sign that Maidana was no dummy.

He might gnaw your hand off or purposely headbutt your jaw out of place, but dammit he’s a thinking man’s fighter now.

But if a fight with Matthysse can’t get made, we could explore a fight with Danny Garcia. The 140 pound champ has been saying for awhile now that he’d like to move up to 147, so there’s no reason that this fight couldn’t happen. Garcia has already tamed one beast in Matthysse, could he do the same to Maidana?

The rematch with Broner is another option. The first fight was exciting as hell, and Broner can fight well when he’s pressed. He was humiliated the first time out; would he be able to reciprocate in a second bout?

Keith Thurman has been desperately calling out everyone from Mayweather to the ghost of Ray Robinson, to no avail. A Maidana-Thurman bout would be a fantastic fight on paper that would most likely translate to carnage inside the ring.

Of course, Maidana would love to avenge his loss to Amir Khan. Though badly outboxed throughout most of the fight, he had Khan reeling in the final rounds and nearly out on his feet at the end. Khan is doing everything he can to get Mayweather in the ring, but if he can’t secure a date with “Money,” a match with Maidana would be huge, especially in the U.K.

So obviously, Maidana has plenty of choices in front of him. It’s up to his handlers to put him in there with another solid fighter, and Maidana should do the rest himself. He’s always been exciting to watch, but after giving Mayweather plenty of rocky moments, he might be the exciting favorite over just about anybody.

 

Some Random Notes From The Boxing World:

It will be really interesting to see when the PPV numbers come out, (if they ever do) but I’m betting they’re not great. Whether it’s a combination of price, pathetic, shitty undercards, or Mayweather oversaturation, the buzz was missing from this event. Hopefully somebody gets the hint…

Kenny Bayless equipped himself really well as the third man in Mayweather’s corner Saturday night. Problem was that somebody forgot to tell him that he was supposed to be the referee. Between breaking the fighters up whenever Maidana would so much as glare at Mayweather menacingly and taking a point away from Maidana for… something? He was awful. Worse, he made a pathetic joke of himself and substantiated everyone’s fears going into the fight. He looked like a lackey.

The Bey-Vasquez fight was absolutely as bad as we thought it would be. Robert Hoyle’s ridiculous scorecard of 119-109 for Bey proved what I was thinking all along–nobody was actually watching the fight.

Alfredo Angulo is pure entertainment. Pure, concussed, absolutely shot entertainment.

Speaking of shot, it’s good to see that Juan Manuel Lopez has decided to retire after taking another horrible knockout loss. Here’s to hoping (but doubting) he’s not in some poorly staged fight in the middle of nowhere in two years because he needed the money.

Is there a more puzzling fighter than John Molina? He gives Matthysse hell a few months ago, only to struggle badly with a guy that Matthysse nearly murdered in Humberto Soto. He is not exactly a picture of consistency.

Gabe Rosado vs. James “Where Have I been?” Kirkland??? I’m there. This fight will be awesome.

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