WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26 KOs) rarely gives rematches. Only once before has he faced a fighter twice and that was against Jose Luis Castillo when he was still fighting as a lightweight. But after their first meeting provided an excellent fight, Mayweather will enter the ring once again with Argentine Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) on September 13 in a rematch of their welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand last May.
Maidana gave Mayweather everything he could handle in that first encounter, stretching the unbeaten champion to the limit coming just short of getting the decision from the judges. “Money” May won by majority decision over Maidana as the three judges scored the fight 114-114, 117-111 and 116-112 respectively. Even though Mayweather is the heavy favorite with sports books at -850 to win their repeat showdown, Maidana has proven that he can hang with Mayweather.
For Maidana to score the upset, he’ll need to bring the non-stop pressure he showed in the first fight. Maidana threw a mind-boggling 100 punches in the first round alone compared to only 35 from Mayweather. In total, Maidana unleashed a whopping 858 punches during the match as he connected on 221 of them for a 26 percent clip. That was the most number of punches landed on Mayweather in the 36 fights Compubox have covered with Money.
Maidana would also do well to keep Mayweather along the ropes as this takes away the rhythm that the champion craves. According to ESPN, Maidana rehydrated to 165 pounds creating a 17-pound advantage against Mayweather on fight night. This enabled Maidana to bully Mayweather at times and take some early rounds in the fight.
Lastly, Maidana should continue unloading those power punches. He threw 540 of those against Mayweather and although only 185 connected for a 34 percent clip, that was still seven more than Mayweather’s entire output. His body shots seemed to punish Mayweather in the latter stages of the fight and will be a crucial weapon for Maidana in their bout next month.
