I could give you a detailed breakdown of a couple of ways that Maidana could beat Floyd Mayweather, but that would just be wasting your time.
I have a lot of respect for Marcos Maidana and I think he deserved he fight, but he isn’t anything that Mayweather hasn’t seen before.
The greatest battle that Mayweather is fighting is a game of chicken between himself and Father Time. I think Mayweather is acutely aware of this, but it is his boxing intelligence that has allowed him to last as long as he has without suffering a defeat.
The key to fighting off father time in boxing is two fold.
First, you have to be an extremely disciplined in how you treat your body. Don’t let Mayweather’s flashy lifestyle fool you. He is one of the most dedicated athletes of all time. He maybe at that the club, but he isn’t drinking, he isn’t smoking, he is always training and he’s always in shape. A lot of boxers *cough* Adrien Broner *cough*, as soon as they get a little success, they lose focus and when they run into someone hungrier you see what happens.
Secondly, boxing is a tough sport and just the physical toll it takes on your body wears you down. It is hard to be in so many wars and survive for a long period of time. Eventually those wars catch up to you. Mayweather beyond some minor hiccups hasn’t taken too much punishment. In the last five years, I’ve only seen him hurt once, that was against Shane Mosley and he went on to dominate that fight.
Some would say expert matchmaking helps with that, but besides Pacquiao, the guys Mayweather have been fighting, have not been pushovers.
Since his two year retirement, Mayweather has beat Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz, Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez.
At the time he fought these individuals they were all B fighters and above and he made them all look like C and D fighters. Beside the fight with Cotto, none were even remotely competitive.
The law of averages says eventually if Mayweather keeps fighting, someone is going to catch up with him, but that would require for him to slow down. At 37 years old we keep looking for signs, but haven’t seen anything to suggest that Maidana will be the one to slay the giant.
In boxing, it only takes one punch to change any fight or in some cases any fighter. Mike Tyson never recovered from the Buster Douglas uppercut, Roy Jones was never the same after the Tarver punch and even Manny Pacquiao admits he is more cautious now after JMM put him to sleep.
Mayweather has never experienced that and Maidana will be the latest to try, but alas he will be the 46th to fail.
