Billed as “Danger Zone,” to be held at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas and telecast on Showtime Championship Boxing this Saturday night, the last major bout of the most engaging fight year in recent memory features two men who personality wise couldn’t be more different.On the one hand you have hard hitting but soft spoken farm boy Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) of Margarita, Sante Fe, Argentina, who considering retirement not long ago has a chance to knock off defending WBA World welterweight champion Adrien “The Problem” Broner in what he considers the opportunity of a lifetime.
On the other end of the spectrum lies the unbeaten, immensely talented Broner (27-0, 22 KO’s), thought by many the heir apparent to Floyd Mayweather Jr., who on a meteoric rise stands in stark contrast to his upcoming opponent, brash, outlandish, and to more than a few simply vulgar. A ticket seller for sure as concerns a figure who’s lately attracting more attention outside the ring than in it.
Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, the same town that’s produced legendary fighters the likes of Ezzard “The Cincinnati Cobra” Charles and Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor, AB considers himself pure and simple an entertainer, this while demonstrating he’s in fact a force to be reckoned with inside the squared circle.
Beyond that the aspiring rapper is much less a threat to topple P Diddy or Jay Z as a top money maker in the industry, so that this weekends contest is sure to let us know where he and Maidana are at in terms of stature, as well as which direction they’ll be heading when all is said and done.
Broner, a three-division champion at only age 24, would jump two weight classes most recently to get to Paulie Malignaggi and his WBA title, a man whom “The Problem” couldn’t put much of a dent in after demolishing just about everyone from 130-135 pounds. Of course Paulie is one tough nut which perhaps says more about the “Magic Man” than it does about Broner’s power, or lack of it in moving up to welterweight.
But the fact remains that in doing what he needed to do against the light hitting Brooklynite to snatch yet another piece of hardware, he faces another animal in Maidana, who, a former title holder himself, has the power to make inroads should he connect in the right way. Of course Broner in facing the fierce Argentine will with a victory disappoint those who’d like to see him pounded into submission. Whether Maidana is the man to do it, only time will tell.
Known as “El Chino” for his somewhat Asian features, Marcos is shifty with his feet, throws punches from varied angles, and has vastly improved in the areas jab utilization as well as head and upper body movement. If only he were able to get his shots off in the midst of such movement he would prove to be so much more of a threat against the defensive prodigy that Broner represents.
Unlikely that Marcos has advanced that far yet, or ever will under the tutelage of trainer Robert Garcia, the fact remains that he’s more durable, and more dangerous than any of Broner’s previous opponents. Having said that, if able to somehow penetrate Adrien’s vaunted defense, Maidana can create problems for “The Problem,” a few of his trademark looping shots over that shoulder led stance being par for the course.
In any event, in a contest which many consider “El Chino” hasn’t much of a chance, I give him a shot. I mean outside of Broner landing a body blow ala Amir Khan to finish what the Pakastani Brit couldn’t, I see Maidana hanging tough well into the fight so that he may be able to wreak a bit of havoc. Of course Marcos punching wide in conjunction with the having a hand speed disparity may prove detrimental to the point that my thoughts of the Argentine going the distance are simply delusional.
However, Maidana’s simply not so one-dimensional as many would assume. Again his punches come from different angles, he possesses the grand equalizer, and at this juncture he’s fought the better opposition in comparison to AB. That said, it will be interesting to see what Robert Garcia has in the way of a game plan for his ever improving charge, although perhaps overrated as a trainer, Garcia would allow Brandon Rios to fight identical to stablemate Antonio Margarito when in against Manny Pacquiao, the end result being a similar shellacking.
But for all intensive purposes Maidana is no Rios, so that this bout may not be totally one-sided. And with Broner giving all the ammunition the challenger needs in the form of Adrien alluding to the fact that he’s going to beat the pulp out of him with fellow Argentinian Lucas Matthysse next, we’ll just have to see how if in any way this factors in.
Will as many suspect Broner walk the walk after the talk, or will Maidana derail the pound-for-pound rated fighter, something worth the price of admission for those who care not for AB? I mean if his latest antics with Paulie Malignaggi regarding Paulie’s ex-girlfriend weren’t enough to turn you off to Adrien, I don’t know what will.
All told Maidana is just as anxious as everyone else to see if Broner can back up what it is he purports to do. Stating “The Problem” hasn’t beaten anyone of his caliber, the challenger took it a step further, expressing the fact that from his point of view the Cincinnati native hasn’t yet fought a man.
As concerns the former, the defending champion overtly agrees, revealing that Maidana represents a step up so that in victory, love him or hate him, Adrien Broner will have reached another plateau.
In closing, as I sit here pondering a possible outcome, similar to thinking that one or another fighter had the goods to overcome Mayweather Jr., I would stand corrected. With this I’ve come to tell myself that Broner should rightfully be recognized the frontrunner he’s listed as, that is until the challenger is able to prove otherwise.
Catch the Showtime telecast starting at 8pm ET/5pm PT, with a solid co-main event featuring Clearwater, Florida’s undefeated Keith “One Time” Thurman defending his interim WBA World welterweight title against battle tested Mexican veteran Jesus Soto Karass, while Leo “El Terremoto” Santa Cruz puts his WBC super bantamweight title on the line against Cesar Seda. Lastly, Kazakh fighter Beibut Shumenov faces off with Slovak born Tamas Kovacs for Shumenov’s WBA Super & IBA light heavyweight world titles. Should be a hoot.
http://youtu.be/effAJHkvMOE
