If Maidana Had Better Things...

The guy has gone from an unknown to forum celeb since Sat night, his name is everywhere and I feel bad starting another hypothetical thread, but I just couldn't hold it in.

Maidana is from the slums, he grew up with nothing and has got to this title shot a long way around and through some tough obstacles.

My wondering is, if Maidana (past or future) was given better quality training, gym equipment and so on. Could he go on to beat the current crop? Because the thing I love about Maidana is his rawness, that pure fighter style he has. He comes to fight and brawl.

With better training would it have hampered him, or would he be more all rounded and more of a force?

He grew up on a farm and was taught to box by goats, considering that, the boy has done pretty good.

"My wondering is, if Maidana (past or future) was given better quality training, gym equipment and so on. Could he go on to beat the current crop?" Even with just the skillset he has at the moment he might still beat some of the current crop, it's not like he's been blasted out by anyone yet. As for your question I don't think you would see the same determination and grit that you see from him if he had it "better" in his past. Like that liver shot in the first round, he may have well said fuck it and decided to lay down right there. Maybe he would have been a better boxer with better defense or something if he had better training and equipment in the past but he'd still probably be just as slow as he is now. I think his style now is the one best suited for his physical abilities actually. It's also interesting in the commercials for the fight on hbo maidana almost comes off as not liking boxing, he says he would never let his son box.

Taught to box by goats ;D

Haha, erm it's hard. With certain fighters, their rawness can be what makes them so effective. Sometimes if you try and change a fighter, he loses his identity and as a result, he becomes less effective at what would normally come naturally.

I think Maidana is this type of fighter.

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Originally Posted by ono

Haha, erm it's hard. With certain fighters, their rawness can be what makes them so effective. Sometimes if you try and change a fighter, he loses his identity and as a result, he becomes less effective at what would normally come naturally.

I think Maidana is this type of fighter.

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I think so too. Certainly guys like Miranda and Sam Peter seemed a whole lot better before they got any proper training. Just took the violence away and left them piss poor boxers.

Pacquiao was pretty crude before Roach.
Elite training worked for him.

I thinks how a fighter responds to training. Is he doing what he's told.. or has he adopted the principles hes been taught and started to think for himself that way. If your fighting for money or a better life, its great inspiration but the gamble is heavy. The fighters that good training usually pays off for, are not so much privileged but students of the game. They get paid but winning is first... and it drives you to be better.

Maidana strikes me as the type of fighter who would abandon all his new-found technique the moment he got hit. He just seems to have a brawlers mentality. Like VD said in another thread, all he wants to do is hit people. You try to shake his hand - he hits you, the ref steps in - he hits you or tries to elbow the ref out of his way. It just seems to be his mentality.

It's more about the heart and work ethic of the boxer and not what the boxer has. If a fighter is aware that he has less and works to compensate for it with more work, I think that he/she could achieve the same level as the the boxer with state of the art equipment. "Put a man in a jungle, and he will become a beast. Put in a man in the city, and he will lose himself." Whether your hitting mitts or bamboo pillars, it doesn't really matter as long as your heart is willing to suffer to achieve your goal.