After his upset of Victor Ortiz, Maidana was hoping to attract one of the top names in the division, but due to his impressive performance, he got put into the unfortunate zone of ?high risk low reward? type of opponent. A tag that unfortunately is difficult to get rid of as we?ve seen with Paul Williams and Winky Wright.
However, Maidana is doing something right by best fighters possible, which are usually up and coming prospects with impressive records. These are the fighters, who are the most hungry and determined to prove themselves; two intangibles that always makes an opponent dangerous.
For Maidana, if he continues to win, it?s a way to stay on the forefront and gain support from the public. Sometimes a fighter can be forced to fight another because of the demand from the fans and that is what Maidana is hoping for.
Now with the workman like victory against Victory Cayo, he is definitely on the right path as the win further established him as one of the top fighters in the division and erased any doubts that his win against Ortiz was a fluke.
Using a Clottey like high guard with subtle head movements, Maidana carefully stalked his opponent, throwing a balanced attack.
For the first few rounds back and forth fight with each fighter having their moments. But it did seem that Cayo might have been on his way for an upset as he proved to be the more versatile boxer with surprising power and chin. Whenever Maidana was about to take over the fight, Cayo would come back with an impressive flurry of his own that often backed up the former to the ropes.
But at the end Maidana?s experience and more balanced attacked proved to be too much for the young Cayo. As Cayo, concentrated on head hunting, Maidana?s attacked Cayo with viscious body shots and used his opponent?s tendency to put his hands low to his advantage. Then it the 6th round Maidana hit Cayo flushed in the midsection which caused the latter to crumble into the floor in pain and was eventually counted out.
The question now is if it was enough to entice any of the top fighters such as Bradley, Khan and Alexander to share the ring with him. Khan might be out of the picture as he is set to face Paulie Malignaggi. But he might be in the running as a future opponent for either Bradley or Alexander because they both have shown the willingness to fight anybody. In fact, a fight with Maidana can provide either fighter a decent paycheck before a potential matchup between them; arguably the two best fighters in the division.
