Boxing Perspective: Who Is Marcos “El Chico” Maidana?

The most anticipated fight of the year between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and that Maidana fighter is just around the corner on May 3 and there is feeling that not many fans of the pugulist sport have a true appreciation for who “El Chico” Maidana really is.

Mayweather’s opponent has some solid boxing skills and has a good track record to prove it. Let’s take a look at who exactly Marcos Maidana really is.

His actual name is Marcos Rene Maidana and he was born in Argentina on July 17, 1983. The 30 year old fighter became famous last December when he upset Adrien Broner to win the WBA Welterweight title, but let’s start from the beginning.

Before becoming a professional, Maidana was the 2002 and 2003 Argentine National Champion. He then went on to finish as a quarterfinalist at the at the World Championships in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003.

He then continued to shine at the America’s Olympic Qualifier for the 2004 Olympics. He ultimately lost his opportunity to fight at the 2004 Athens Olympic games, though he did make a good impression during the qualifying rounds.

He began his professional career on June 12, 2004 in a small arena in Corrientes, Argentina. On December 22nd, 2006, Maidana would go on to win the WBA Fedelatin Super Lightweight Title in Buenos Aires when he defeated the slugger Miguel Callist from Panama.

His next chance to add another title to his young career would come on February, 2009 as he lost his chance to get the WBA Light Welterweight title when he suffered his first loss in controversial fashion at the hands of Andreas Kotelnik from Ukraine.

“El Chico” would eventually become the interim WBA Super Lightweight title holder from June 2009 to April 2011.

Among his notable opponents in the first part of his professional career were Amir Khan, Victor Ortiz and DeMarcus Corley. Of these three opponents, Maidana only lost to Khan and that unanimous decision loss still weights on Maidana, who called out Khan on several occasions.

This fight became an instant classic and was awarded “Fight of the Year” by the Boxing Writer’s Association of America.

The second part of his professional career began with his stunning victory against Erik Morales in April, 2011. This majority decision against Morales and his knockout victory against Petr Petrov gave Maidana the confidence he needed to move up to welterweight ranks.

He did lose his first bout as a Welterweight against Devon Alexander but since then, Maidana hasn’t looked back with victories against Josesito Lopez and of course, Adrien Broner.

Today, Maidana is considered a fighter that has a hard chin, good power and is aggressive in the ring. Among his weakest attributes, however, is that he is considered to have poor foot speed, head movement and hand speed.

Most in the media will tell you that Maidana is a brawler with a very powerful left hook but that’s all. Those closest to him will say that his killer instinct and resiliency is what sets him apart from other fighters.

We will have to see how that translates in the ring against Mayweather, who is no doubt the biggest challenge that Maidana will have to face so far.

Most analyst believe that Maidana won’t last the full 12 rounds against Money May but that is exactly what was said of Maidana against Adrien Broner. “El Chico” has an uncanny ability to withstand the best shots from most fighters and come back strong in the latter end of the bout.

Whatever the outcome, Mayweather will not have an easy time taking care of business with the Argentine fighter. We will only find out on May 3 what the actual outcome will be but in the meantime, if the past is any indication, Maidana will give us a great showing and who knows, he might hand the best fighter of our generation the first loss on a flawless record.