Whether you love him or hate him, nobody quite does it like Floyd Mayweather. The undefeated five-division champion has made the Cinco De Mayo weekend go from big to epic in the sport of boxing, making his matches not just a fight, but an event.
Leading up to this fight with WBA Welterweight titleholder Marcos Maidana, Mayweather launched an ill-advised poll to gather support for a clash with the fading former Junior Welterweight Amir Khan or Maidana. Though Khan "won" on the poll, Mayweather vetoed the result and accepted the public's choice that he face Maidana instead.
Maidana has had a long road on his way to this fight and is coming off of a career-best win after throttling Mayweather-mini Adrien Broner in his last effort. He toppled one of boxing's best prospects, but does the rugged Argentine have what it takes to take down the best fighter of this era?
Power: Maidana
Speed: Mayweather
Style: Mayweather
X-Factor: Maidana's conditioning. Has been unable to consistently maintain a pace.
Recent Form: Mayweather
To make it brief: No.
Mayweather at 37 is fighting smarter and more efficiently than he did in his younger years. In his 2013 campaign, which came following a year of inactivity and serving a prison sentence, Mayweather easily defeated Robert Guerrero and moved up to 152 pounds to spank Saul Alvarez. In both of those fights, "Money" looked like his namesake by winning virtually every second of those fights against two very different, but very good fighters.
There really isn't much to say about Mayweather in regards to any intangibles or issues he'll have going into the fight. He'll be the same well conditioned technician looking to deflect his opponents charges with his shoulder roll and right hand counters. The real question mark isn't how prepared Mayweather is, but more so what exactly does Maidana bring to the table?
Much has been made of Maidana's reinvention after pairing up with Robert Garcia, but that came after a point where many wondered if Maidana was ever ready for mainstream success. Maidana fell short in all three of his previous title fights before Broner with each person beating him in a different way.
Andres Kotelnik outlasted and outboxed him. Amir Khan dropped Maidana early with a body shot and his chin held up strong in Maidana's late desperation surges, and Devon Alexander used combination punches and counters to stamp the signature win of his career against him, nearly stopping him late in their fight.
Maidana isn't as fast as Guerrero, nor is he as strong as Alvarez. He has no physical advantages or wrinkles in his style that could potentially lead to success against Mayweather. As a matter of fact, Maidana just may be the most limited fighter that Mayweather has fought since outpointing the lumbering Carlos Baldomir back in 2006.
14/1 odds say that Mayweather is going to win, and it's hard to not see him do so convincingly. While Mayweather may press for a stoppage, he'll settle for a lopsided decision and have to look forward at the best of what's left.
...Or maybe not.
Khan, who was nothing but a snotty brat when he realized that he wasn't getting a fight with Mayweather, might still be able to punch his ticket against the resurgent Luis Collazo in the main undercard bout. Collazo shockingly knocked out Victor Ortiz last January and Khan hasn't been in the ring since narrowly escaping handpicked foe Julio Diaz last year, not to mention the fact that Khan hasn't looked good since losing a close loss to Lamont Peterson three years prior.
Collazo may not be a big puncher, but Khan's declining form thanks to the now ill-advised pairing with Virgil Hunter makes this a close fight. The judges will ultimately see this one in Khan's favor though the crowd may not, and it will ultimately remove him from the Mayweather equation once again.
More than likely the winner of this fight may have to take one more shot before getting Mayweather if they get a shot at all. That will have to come against Broner, who will be matched up against Lightweight contender Carlos Molina (not to be confused for the Junior Middleweight champion of the same name). Broner should take down Molina by mid-round KO, but will more than likely be seeing either Collazo or Khan later this year.
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