After weeks of speculation pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. finally has his opponent for his May 3 bout after choosing Marcos Maidana to be the next hopeful to try and end his unbeaten streak.
Mayweather took to his Twitter to announce his choice:
I will be fighting Marcos Maidana May 3rd on Pay-per-view Showtime/CBS http://t.co/mtj7H8WVxu pic.twitter.com/Rc2N87zcjP
— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) February 25, 2014
Noticeably absent from his announcement was where the bout would be held, as most speculate the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., but there is an outside chance it ends up at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mayweather (45-0,26 KOs) chose Maidana over Amir Khan, despite Khan winning the fan vote on the Mayweather Promotions webpage. After Khan won fans and media alike took to social media to voice their opposition of Khan winning the poll and that could have played a major part in Maidana being chosen.
Khan beat Maidana (35-3, 31 KOs) back in 2010, so Khan felt that if anything that alone should of gave him the edge over Maidana to win the Mayweather Sweepstakes. With the bout between Maidana and Khan taking place around four years ago, the result of that bout doesn’t reflect where the two fighters stand today.
Khan has went 4-2 in his last six bouts, and even in his wins he has done nothing to wow anyone and has been knocked down several times, with his best win in that time span being a knockout of an aging Zab Judah.
Miadana on the other hand has gone 6-1 since the Khan bout and is coming off the biggest win of his career, over Mayweather protégé Adrien Broner in December. Beating Broner put a serious dent on the talks that Broner would be the next big star in boxing, as he was compared to Mayweather more and more with each win.
It was thought that Khan’s speed could give Mayweather problems, but with how he struggled to put away lesser opponents that couldn’t be relied upon 100 percent.
Maidana has more power and will offer that wild card of a possible knockout, but you have to hit Mayweahter first, and with his top-notch defensive skills, it is easier said than done.
