Will Marcos Maidana Solve “The Problem”?
Adrien Broner lookes to be lined up with dangerous Argentine puncher Marcos Maidana later this year. With the Broner vs. Maidana fight reportedly near on the horizon, and already a load of trash talk taking place between the fighters, there is plenty of speculation as to how Broner will handle the reality of being faced by a top-level banger. After all, questions remain with Broner, in terms of his chin, heart, endurance and his ring IQ all areas which have yet to be fully explored.
Does Maidana have what it takes to solve “The Problem”? You don’t have to spend too much time looking through the back uncatalogued of fights to see the difference in styles between the pair, and as the old idiom goes “styles make fights”. So a better question may be – for whom is this fight best suited?
In his last fight, Broner worked his way to an underwhelming split decision victory over Paulie Malignaggi in a fight that was more notorious for the trash-talk associated with it than the action within the ring. Having jumped two weight classes for the fight, Broner was expecting to douse Malignaggi’s flame with ease in a manner similar to that with which Ricky Hatton and Amir Khan had done in previous years. The fact the bout was close drew fresh criticisms of the brash young American, who was, and for some people still is, seen as the heir to Floyd Mayweather’s throne of boxing riches.
Broner tends to have difficulty against awkward styles, such as those presented to him by Daniel Ponce De Leon, whom he defeated via controversial and boring decision, and Malignaggi. Irregular movement seems to give Broner a headache, which is lucky for him, because Maidana tends to move forward and back in straight lines. Maidana has been caught out in previous fights by men with superior footwork, speed and technique. DeMarcus Corley and Erik Morales were able to take him the distance in losing efforts, while he was outpointed by the quickfire punching of Amir Khan and Devon Alexander.
ProBoxing-Fans.com has Broner at #5 and Maidana at #8 in the welterweight division
The truth is, they may approach it entirely differently, but both Broner and Maidana are inherently offense-focused fighters.
Broner barely gave ground once while out-boxing and out-punching Antonio DeMarco and Gavin Rees, and while he postured occasionally, he generally pushed forward against both Malignaggi and Vicente Escobedo. Maidana, of course, has made a career of fighting with wild two-fisted flurries and a relentless attack based on pure power.
Some may not see Broner in this light, but that is a result of his aforementioned miscasting as the “heir to Mayweather”. Although some fans and spectators believe he may come to dominate boxing in a similar vein, he will achieve this through different means if he does, as Broner is both more flatfooted and powerful than Mayweather was at his age. This is no criticism, for with his style, we can look forward to some riveting fights during Broner’s continued ascent towards the highest echelons of boxing.
And Broner vs. Maidana may well be one of them. Broner is not averse to receiving punches, and he will take some of the hardest shots in his life against the man known as “El Chino”. Nonetheless, Broner has proven himself to enjoy teeing off against open opponents, and Maidana won’t be hiding anything come fight night.
Broner can be expected to pick off Maidana, perhaps scoring a late stoppage victory, before taking aim at future match-ups that could include other hard hitters such as the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Lucas Matthyse fight, or perhaps the winner of the rumored Robert Guerrero vs. Keith Thurman match.
To solve a Problem you must first understand its nature, and while some may continue to compare him stylistically to Mayweather, Broner will likely continue to form his own unique legacy built upon excitement rather than precision. Maidana has enough power to solve most Problems, but he’ll be outmatched in a fight with Broner.
