I saw Argentinean brute Marcos Maidana up close and personal for the first time last year in early October. Maidana had landed in Las Vegas the night before and kicked off his training camp at Barry’s Boxing right off of the strip as he eyed a December date with WBA champion Amir Khan.
I observed Maidana in camp a few select times as the clash neared and if there was one thing I could point to in him that stood out it would have to be his crippling power. As he hit the heavy bag with reckless abandon I couldn’t recall a fighter near his weight class who I had seen in person that hit the way he did.
<--- Slideshow: Candid images of Argentinean chin checker Marcos Maidana
Maidana would end up losing a close unanimous decision to Khan in a fight in which he suffered a knockdown from a body shot in the first round and was dominated in the early stages of the fight. But Maidana would weather the storm and work his way back into the contest, even battering Khan across the ring in the tenth round, in a performance that spoke volumes about his willpower and left the masses wanting more.
Two months removed from the second defeat of his career, Maidana is now eyeing an April date against former three-division champion Erik Morales at the nearby MGM Grand. As he heads into the contest Maidana is without head trainer Miguel Diaz, as the two amicably went their separate ways, and now working under the watchful eye of well-known Nacho Beristain.
Beristain is known best for his work with the Marquez brothers, Juan Manuel and Rafael. Beristain helped mold the Mexico City pugilists into efficient, deadly fighting machines and your mind begins to run wild when thinking of what he can do with a man with as much sheer force as Maidana.
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Maidana’s advisor Sebastian Contursi told me after the Khan-Maidana weigh in that he didn’t expect the team to be returning to Las Vegas to train because of financial reasons and the recent switch in trainers was the final blow for ‘Chino’ exiting Nevada. Maidana recently landed in Mexico to begin training with Beristain and company and will dive into his full regimen this coming Monday.
Maidana met up with Beristain at six in the morning on Sunday and began running drills and light training at the Romanza gym. Contursi also spoke on the speculation that Juan Manuel Marquez was displeased with the fact that his coach would be working with Maidana, as he himself was in line to face off with Morales on April 9th before passing on the fight for various reasons. Also, given the fact that Marquez has toyed with the thought of fighting at 140 pounds, he obviously sees Maidana as a potential threat himself.
“It’s true,” Contursi said in a recent BoxingScene.com interview. “He said in Mexico, when he learned that ‘El Chino’ would train with Beristain, that it would block off a potential opponent. He said it publicly. But I know that in private they sat down to talk and solved it. It would be a luxury for Marcos to have him as a sparring partner. What fighter would not want to spar with Juan Manuel Marquez?”
Definitely sounds like things are going to be heating up in Mexico City. As far as offering up any forewarnings on the Morales match, Maidana seemed to keep things civil, for the moment at least.
“We discussed some time ago that the opponent could be Erik Morales. I only saw him at his best, which they say is gone. [Morales] has a lot of wisdom in the ring and a lot of experience. With that alone he can be tough. But I’ll train hard and I’ll be at my best.”
