Las Vegas Fight Night: Mayweather vs. Maidana, Khan vs. Collazo

Let’s just get this straight, WBA welterweight titlist Marcos Maidana is a rather one dimensional pressure fighter. Yes, what he does, he does very well, but everyone is well aware of his game plan going into tonight’s unification title fight with WBC welter champion Floyd Mayweather Jr at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Maidana is not going to try and outbox Mayweather. He is going to come forward, try and pin Mayweather on the ropes and put the pressure on him.

With Mayweather’s last few opponents, I have almost convinced myself that they may have had some new game plan or style to dethrone Floyd.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, I would tell myself, was young and big at light middleweight, Robert Guerrero was a southpaw, Miguel Cotto is a superb pressure fighter/boxer-puncher…etc.

You can go all the way back to 2001 and Diego Corrales; Mayweather’s opponents all brought something different to the table.

Maidana offers nothing new here.

Floyd’s defensive wizardry makes him incredibly hard to hit, even by the cutest of operators. Cute is not a word you would associate with Maidana…crude is a better fit.

And there is nothing wrong with that, it has worked against Adrien Broner and Josesito Lopez, and it makes for good watching, I like to watch him being crude, but that doesn’t work against Mayweather.

And before anyone says it, no, Adrien Broner is not a Mayweather clone. Yes, they both use the shoulder roll, but lots of fighters use a shoulder roll, some better than others.

Floyd is different on so many other levels; his footwork, timing and pacing, to name a few. He is naturally bigger than Broner as well.

Maidana has lost to Devon Alexander, A mir Khan and Andreas Kotelnik, so when he steps up another level, he is found wanting.

He is tough, so I don’t expect a stoppage but, as with all the other Mayweather fights I have previewed, as soon as Floyd starts to dictate the pace of the fight, usually around round three or four, it’s game over and a shutout on the scorecards.

On the undercard in Las Vegas, Amir Khan against Luis Collazo at welter is trickier to weigh up.

Khan carries blinding speed; Collazo is a slick experienced southpaw. Collazo’s last fight was against Victor Ortiz, and he stopped Ortiz by timing him onto a counter right hook. Collazo’s not a big puncher but his timing is superb.

Look at how Khan was stopped in his most recent fight by Danny Garcia. Garcia timed Amir and caught him with a perfect left hook counter.

If Collazo adapts Garcia’s game plan, he could stop Khan. We shouldn’t take too much from Collazo’s victory over Ortiz though, as Ortiz hasn’t been the same fighter since, ha, his loss to…Maidana.

Collazo has the experience to weather the storm and try and walk Khan onto a shot, and if he does, well, Khan has many qualities but if there is one thing you can safely say, he doesn’t take a punch well, does he?

Nor does Khan hide it when he is hurt…he doesn’t have the best poker face is what I am trying to say. Saying that though, he makes for great watching.

Watching him against, ha…there he is again, Maidana, was great and when Khan does stick to his game plan, he can box beautifully.

Khan won’t look to engage in a brawl against Collazo, he will want to keep it long and if he does, then it could come out the victor.

That’s if he hasn’t been looking past Collazo for a fight with Mayweather, which we all know Khan has been.
My gut feeling when this fight was announced was that Khan is going to struggle against Collazo and I still think that will be the case.