Maidana at 140 lost to Kotelnik, got bounced off the canvas several times by Ortiz, and lost to Amir fucking Khan. Prime Tszyu lights Chino up.
He also moved up a division and came closer than most to beating Floyd. I could see a case for both in this one.
Maidana at 147 was a better fighter than he was at 140, mostly due to having Robert Garcia as his trainer. I think Tszyu feasts on fighters like Maidana. Tszyu via mid rounds KO.
This would have been a firefight, and while I do think Tszyu should be (slightly) favored, have we ever seen Maidana lose those kind of fights ?
If Chino can get through that initial assault he's going to take, I do in fact see that happening. I'm just not so sure he would get out of the early rounds.
Zoo was much, much better than Maidana. Maidana is, like, cack. Basically a tough, rugged, aggressive bum. Zoo would never, ever have lost a fight with Amir Khan. MTF
Not only did he lose to Khan at 140, he also went life and death with a shot Morales... in a fight he was expected to slaughter Morales. People remember the good about Maidana, but not the bad. In retrospect, what the Hell does beating Victor Ortiz and Broner really mean? THE two mentally weakest fighters of the last 20 years. I say this as a Maidana FAN too! The guy was fun as Hell to watch. But Tszyu was in a different class.
But even old floyd was miles better than Tszyu. The first fight could have been a draw or even a close win to Maidana, you have to take it in account when you evaluate his career and his worth
If your card exceeded 5 rounds for Maidana, you need a lobotomy... that's the most generous possible card for him ...
To Maidana's credit, it wasn't that far off from a draw. I had Floyd BARELY squeezing by at 7-5. I'll always find pleasure in the fact that a caveman did 10x better against Floyd than Alltheroids did.
By the time he was nearly 40, Floyd had clearly started to slow down and was therefore vulnerable to a gutty, pressure fighter like Maidana. In fact, there has always been a suspicion (largely based on the Castillo fight) that Floyd has always had a bit of a stylistic vulnerability to pressure fighters. Maidana's effort against Floyd is noteworthy, but to base his entire reputation on it, while avoiding to consider all the other times he looked absolutely average is disingenuous. A prime Floyd would have lit Chino up and stopped him by countering him into bolivian. Fucking Amir Khan was able to time his rushes forward and pepper him with loads of shots, and Khan is basically a brainless, powerless boxbot. Tszyu, who was not as good as Floyd but much, much better than Amir, would have hit Chino with about 500 very hard punches that he didn't see coming and stop him. MTF
Personally I thought Floyd edged it, but it was a legimitately close fight, people scoring it a draw would not surprise me. Just like Double said, there was a rematch for a reason. Public opinion was that he ran Floyd close, if not, a rematch would have been completely pointless. The punchstats do tell the story of the fight imo, Floyd squeaked by. The round by round punchstats also support the closeness of the fight, with each outlanding the other in 6 rounds. And Maidana generally landed harder shots, and was obviously the aggressor. A case could definitely be made for a draw.
BTW Marcos would have Cool Vince'd Tszyu. Tszyu was a bitch, and nowhere near as skilled and talented as people make out. Marcos would have mauled him just like Vince and Hatton, and made him quit, just like Vince and Hatton.
Maidana did not beat Floyd. Roughed him up, won at least 4 rounds, arguably 5. But no more than that. He faded quite badly in the championship rounds and Floyd swept 9 through 12.
Precisely Anything more generous than that is delusion and hope that the totally despicable Mayweather loses
