It’s that time of year again. The Floyd Mayweather, Jr. machine will roll into the MGM Grand, and give the Las Vegas economy a nice bump in the process. Mayweather is coming off a career best win against Canelo Alvarez, a fight many thought would be his toughest challenge in years. So who’s next to win the Mayweather lottery? No less than Marcos ”El Chino” Maidana. The gaucho gangster is coming off of his own career-defining victory against Adrian Broner and now facing the biggest fight of his career. They’re calling the fight “The Moment.” Will Chino crack the May-vinci code? Or will Mayweather have yet another “moment” in the desert sun? Here’s our take on the storylines, fighters and the outcome.
No Shortage of Drama
First, this isn’t the Mayweather fight anyone has been asking for, but with no Pacquiao match-up in sight and a rapidly thinning roster of opponents, Maidana is the next best thing. Second, with Mayweather cleanly dispatching Canelo who was, aside from Pacquiao, his only legitimate threat its tough to buy the “sell” on this bout. Despite this there are still some interesting plots surrounding the fight. For one, Mayweather will be facing the man who gave his protégé – Adrian Broner – quite the schooling session when they fought. More exciting though is that Maidana doesn’t suffer fools. The Argentine is a legit gangster with awesome punching power coming off a career best win. Which even Mayweather acknowledged in a pre-fight conference call stating, “he punches extremely hard. If he has an 80 percent knockout ratio. I think he’s more confident now than he was when he faced the kid from St. Louis, Devon Alexander. So I think he’s more ready and tough. If you have more confidence it’s going to make you fight harder.”