Maidana CANNOT Be Better This Time Against Mayweather

Published

11 years ago

September 13, 2014

It’s the oldest, but also the truest cliché in the sport of boxing. “Styles make fights.”

And if we take it a little further it can be said that styles also determine the outcome of most fights. In boxing you have fighters who fight as boxers/technicians, boxer/punchers, counter-punchers, swarmers/maulers and sluggers.

This weekend welterweight Floyd Mayweather 46-0 (26) will fight a rematch with former junior welterweight title-holder Marcos Maidana 35-4 (31). When they last tangled four months ago, Mayweather won a 12-round majority decision which in reality should’ve been unanimous. After eight rounds Maidana was getting the better of it against Mayweather. Maidana’s non-stop reckless aggression was suffocating Mayweather and totally nullified his ability to move, box and counter-punch. Floyd was under duress and didn’t have the time or needed space to box or set any traps for Maidana. In the main, Mayweather, in-spite of tagging Marcos with some big shots, was basically fighting for his life and just hoping to fight Maidana off of him with the intent of stabilizing the action and tempo.

In essence, Maidana was fighting his fight almost to the letter. His aggression was effective and because of it along with his unorthodox mauling tactics, Floyd was out of his comfort zone. That said, Maidana was paying a price and getting nailed with some of Mayweather’s Sunday best in the process. And as much as Maidana was dictating the pace and had Mayweather uncomfortable, he wasn’t physically strong enough to break his will or shut down his skill. Even after getting worked over for the better part of eight rounds, Mayweather was able to box and pot-shot Maidana during the last third of the bout because Marcos needed a breather after trying to sustain his all-out assault. And once Maidana was forced to take his foot off the gas a little so he could conserve his energy in order to make it through the final four rounds, that was all Mayweather needed to fight his fight and pick his spots and go on to win three of the last four rounds to seal the decision in his favor.

Think of it like this: as long as Maidana was fighting full throttle and wide open, you could say he more or less got the better of it. But he’s just a man and is only so strong. Asking him to fight all out for 12 complete rounds is not realistic for anybody. He recently said that he did tire and was forced to conserve his energy during the final third of the fight. And this was against a version of Mayweather who I believe took him a little lightly and didn’t train and prepare with the needed urgency he will in training for the rematch.

What many have missed regarding their last fight is how much it took out of Maidana physically hitting Floyd and trying to beat him up. And if you’re honest, as hard as Maidana hit Mayweather, he never really had him in real trouble or badly shaken during the entire bout. Again, this was against Mayweather who didn’t go into the fight on alert mode and who probably viewed Maidana as nothing more than a crude and unorthodox mauler who he could side step and counter at will. This time Floyd will be much more focused and purposeful. I also believe that like it was the case when he fought Miguel Cotto, Mayweather held his ground a little more than usual and wanted to prove he could beat the rough and tough aggressor at his own game.

Obviously, what Maidana did during the last fight worked, but not enough for him to leave the ring as the winner. Marcos Maidana is an attacker/swarmer. His style and pressure are only effective when he’s forcing the fight and pushing his opponent back to the ropes or into one of the corners. As long as he had Mayweather on the defense, he was in the fight. Nothing bothers a boxer or technician like being cut off and forced to fight and trade. However, there is a price to pay if you’re the attacker pushing the fight – and that is you are walking directly into the firestorm. If the boxer cannot hurt you, then it’s worth the price so you can get inside and work him over……But if he’s cable of blunting and stunting your pressure, you’ve got to be more judicious with your aggression if you’re the attacker. And we saw during the first fight, Maidana did pay a price for taking it to Mayweather, and eventually it slowed him down right at the point to where the fight was being decided.

Maidana also said that you have to respect Floyd’s punch, which is really code for saying Mayweather hits hard enough that he can’t just go at him like he’s handcuffed and unload the kitchen sink on him. He’ll be reminded of this when Mayweather catches him real good for the first time in the rematch. Couple that with Maidana tiring during the last fight because he was worn down by the constant strain of trying to force the fight on the inside, which will more than likely be the case against a more focused Mayweather.

If you’re Marcos Maidana, what adjustments can you realistically make in order to tilt the rematch in your favor? The only way he can be effective is if he can turn the bout into a street fight. I’ve heard some say he has to jab and be more measured this time in order to set up his power shots. To that I say – yeah, in the cookbook world that sounds plausible. But in the ring it won’t be so easily applied. Mayweather is the boxer, there’s nothing he’d love more than for Maidana to try and wait and react to what he does. In that scenario Maidana would get off second and lose every exchange during the fight. If Marcos tries to fight measured, that’s not who he is. He has one advantage over Floyd if you discount that he’s a few years younger, and that he is the bigger puncher. The problem is, he can’t deliver his punch to where he needs to if he’s watching and waiting to see what Mayweather is going to do. Furthermore, we saw that even his Sunday punch didn’t detonate enough to drop or stop Mayweather. If he waits there’s much less of a chance of him ever landing anything consequential because if Floyd isn’t fighting for his life, despite Maidana’s unconventional delivery, Mayweather will see everything Maidana lobs at him.

Conversely, Mayweather can change a little stylistically like he did versus Jose Luis Castillo in their rematch. This time Floyd will try to keep Maidana more in ring center and look to get off first while there’s a lull in the action. He’ll also look to get off first instead of countering this time because he knows Marcos can’t handle the effects of continuously getting tagged and stunned on the way in. And once Maidana starts to think and become slightly hesitant with his aggression, it’s over.

Attackers have to attack and go for the knockout three minutes a round to be effective. That’s the only way their style works. If Maidana tries to all of the sudden be a thinking fighter, he’ll be a fish out of water against a sharp assassin like Mayweather. Think of it this way, what if Joe Frazier waited and reacted to Muhammad Ali, or if Roberto Duran didn’t bring it to Sugar Ray Leonard? Under that scenario, both Joe and Roberto would be second every time thus they’d lose every exchange and probably never land a meaningful punch because they’d be fighting more as a boxer or counter-puncher. Well, Mayweather would love for the fight to come down to speed and reflexes, because without pressure, his superior speed and reflexes will shine.

The bottom line for Mayweather-Maidana II is, Floyd can adjust a little or fight the same style he did last time and win. As opposed to Maidana, who can only hope to bring a little more of what didn’t work the last time but still gives him his only chance to win. Maidana must go for the knockout from bell-to-bell as long as he can. Either he goes all out and stops Floyd, or he runs out of gas and maybe gets stopped in the process. However, it’s better to fight your fight and give yourself the best chance to win and getting stopped, than it is just watching Floyd waiting for the ideal time to cut loose. If Maidana’s been convinced that he can do better this time by boxing and fighting more measured, Mayweather will eat him up and never experience one close call during the fight and will win going away.

There’s a reason why if the better boxer or technician beats the attacker the first time, the rematch is usually a rerun of the first meeting. Fighters who adopt the mauling/swarming style like Marcos Maidana do so for a reason, and that’s because they can’t box and be effective. Maidana’s only chance to beat Mayweather is for him to fight like he always does and hope that Freddie Roach was right when he suggested that Floyd’s legs are gone and he’s showing physical signs of a fighter on the decline.

That, I wouldn’t bet on. No, not this weekend.

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

Photo credits:Stephanie Trapp/Mayweather Promotions

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Frank Lotierzo

TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.

Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.

Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11^th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)

Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.

The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).

Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”

A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.

Other winners:

Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon

Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney

Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire

Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix

The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.

The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.

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Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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To say that Mekhrubon Sanginov is excited to resume his boxing career would be a great understatement. Sanginov, ranked #9 by the WBA at 154 pounds before his hiatus, last fought on July 8, 2022.

He was in great form before his extended leave, having scored four straight fast knockouts, advancing his record to 13-0-1. Had he remained in Las Vegas, where he had settled after his fifth pro fight, his career may have continued on an upward trajectory, but a trip to his hometown of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, turned everything haywire. A run-in with a knife-wielding bully nearly cost him his life, stalling his career for nearly three full years.

Sanginov was exiting a restaurant in Dushanbe when he saw a man, plainly intoxicated, harassing another man, an innocent bystander. Mekhrubon intervened and was stabbed several times with a long knife. One of the puncture wounds came perilously close to puncturing his heart.

“After he stabbed me, I ran after him and hit him and caught him to hold for the police,” recollects Sanginov. “There was a lot of confusion when the police arrived. At first, the police were not certain what had happened.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I had lost two liters of blood, or so I was told. After I was patched up, one of the surgeons said to me, ‘Give thanks to God because he gave you a second life.’ It is like I was born a second time.”

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened in any city,” he adds. (A story about the incident on another boxing site elicited this comment from a reader: “Good man right there. World would be a better place if more folk were willing to step up when it counts.”)

Sanginov first laced on a pair of gloves at age 10 and was purportedly 105-14 as an amateur. Growing up, the boxer he most admired was Roberto Duran. “Muhammad Ali will always be the greatest and [Marvin] Hagler was great too, but Duran was always my favorite,” he says.

During his absence from the ring, Sanginov married a girl from Tajikistan and became a father. His son Makhmud was born in Las Vegas and has dual citizenship. “Ideally,” he says, “I would like to have three more children. Two more boys and the last one a daughter.”

He also put on a great deal of weight. When he returned to the gym, his trainer Bones Adams was looking at a cruiserweight. But gradually the weight came off – “I had to give up one of my hobbies; I love to eat,” he says – and he will be resuming his career at 154. “Although I am the same weight as before, I feel stronger now. Before I was more of a boy, now I am a full-grown man,” says Sanginov who turned 29 in February.

He has a lot of rust to shed. Because of all those early knockouts, he has answered the bell for only eight rounds in the last four years. Concordantly, his comeback fight on Saturday could be described as a soft re-awakening. Sanginov’s opponent Mahonri Montes, an 18-year pro from Mexico, has a decent record (36-10-2, 25 KOs) but has been relatively inactive and is only 1-3-1 in his last five. Their match at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California, is slated for eight rounds.

On May 10, Ardreal Holmes (17-0) faces Erickson Lubin (26-2) on a ProBox card in Kissimmee, Florida. It’s an IBF super welterweight title eliminator, meaning that the winner (in theory) will proceed directly to a world title fight.

Sanginov will be watching closely. He and Holmes were scheduled to meet in March of 2022 in the main event of a ShoBox card on Showtime. That match fell out when Sanginov suffered an ankle injury in sparring.

If not for a twist of fate, that may have been Mekhrubon Sanginov in that IBF eliminator, rather than Ardreal Holmes. We will never know, but one thing we do know is that Mekhrubon’s world title aspirations were too strong to be ruined by a knife-wielding bully.

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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

5 days ago

April 12, 2025

David A. Avila

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In the showdown between undefeated welterweight champions Jaron “Boots Ennis walked away with the victory by technical knockout over Eamantis Stanionis and the WBA and IBF titles on Saturday.

No doubt. Ennis was the superior fighter.

“He’s a great fighter. He’s a good guy,” said Ennis.

Philadelphia’s Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) faced Lithuania’s Stanionis (15-1, 10 KOs) at demonstrated an overpowering southpaw and orthodox attack in front of a sold-out crowd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It might have been confusing but whether he was in a southpaw stance or not Ennis busted the body with power shots and jabbed away in a withering pace in the first two rounds.

Stanionis looked surprised when his counter shots seemed impotent.

In the third round the Lithuanian fighter who trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, began using a rocket jab to gain some semblance of control. Then he launched lead rights to the jaw of Ennis. Though Stanionis connected solidly, the Philly fighter was still standing and seemingly unfazed by the blows.

That was a bad sign for Stanionis.

Ennis returned to his lightning jabs and blows to the body and Stanionis continued his marauding style like a Sherman Tank looking to eventually run over his foe. He just couldn’t muster enough firepower.

In the fifth round Stanionis opened up with a powerful body attack and seemed to have Ennis in retreat. But the Philadelphia fighter opened up with a speedy combination that ended with blood dripping from the nose of Stanionis.

It was not looking optimistic for the Lithuanian fighter who had never lost.

Stanionis opened up the sixth round with a three-punch combination and Ennis met him with a combination of his own. Stanionis was suddenly in retreat and Ennis chased him like a leopard pouncing on prey. A lightning five-punch combination that included four consecutive uppercuts delivered Stanionis to the floor for the count. He got up and survived the rest of the round.

After returning shakily to his corner, the trainer whispered to him and then told the referee that they had surrendered.

Ennis jumped in happiness and now holds the WBA and IBF welterweight titles.

“I felt like I was getting in my groove. I had a dream I got a stoppage just like this,” said Ennis.

Stanionis looked like he could continue, but perhaps it was a wise move by his trainer. The Lithuanian fighter’s wife is expecting their first child at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ennis finally proved the expectations of greatness by experts. It was a thorough display of superiority over a very good champion.

“The biggest part was being myself and having a live body in front of me,” said Ennis. “I’m just getting started.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was jubilant over the performance of the Philadelphia fighter.

“What a wonderful humble man. This is one of the finest fighters today. By far the best fighter in the division,” said Hearn. “You are witnessing true greatness.”

Other Bouts

Former featherweight world champion Raymond Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs) showed that moving up in weight would not be a problem even against the rugged and taller Thomas Mattice (22-5-1, 17 KOs) in winning by a convincing unanimous decision.

The quicksilver southpaw Ford ravaged Mattice in the first round then basically cruised the remaining nine rounds like a jackhammer set on automatic. Four-punch combinations pummeled Mattice but never put him down.

“He was a smart veteran. He could take a hit,” said Ford.

Still, there was no doubt on who won the super featherweight contest. After 10 rounds all three judges gave Ford every round and scored it 100-90 for the New Jersey fighter who formerly held the WBA featherweight title which was wrested from him by Nick Ball.

Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs) made good on a promise to his departed daughter by knocking out Argentina’s Franco Ocampo (17-3, 8 KOs) in their welterweight battle.

Giyasov floored Ocampo in the first round with an overhand right but the Argentine fighter was able to recover and fight on for several more rounds.

In the fourth frame, Giyasov launched a lead right to the liver and collapsed Ocampo with the body shot for the count of 10 at 1:57 of the fourth round.

“I had a very hard camp because I lost my daughter,” Giyasov explained. “I promised I would be world champion.”

In his second pro fight Omari Jones (2-0) needed only seconds to disable William Jackson (13-6-2) with a counter right to the body for a knockout win. The former Olympic medalist was looking for rounds but reacted to his opponent’s actions.

“He was a veteran he came out strong,” said Jones who won a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. “But I just stayed tight and I looked for the shot and I landed it.”

After a feint, Jackson attacked and was countered by a right to the rib cage and down he went for the count at 1:40 of the first round in the welterweight contest.

Photo credit: Matchroom

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