Fighter Profile: Marcos Maidana, Junior Welterweight Champion
Marcos “El Chino” Maidana is an explosive Argentinean junior welterweight fighter with an aggressive, powerful style. Maidana is the current interim WBA Junior Welterweight Champion and has earned 26 of his 27 victories by way of knockout.
Amateur Career – Maidana was the 2002 and 2003 Argentine National Champion and was a quarterfinalist in the 2003 World Championships as well. Maidana finished his Amateur career after just missing qualifying for the 2004 Olympics.
Early Professional Career – Maidana won his first 25 fights, all but one being by knockout, establishing himself as one of the biggest punchers in the division. His first loss came via a split decision to Andriy Kotelnik. Six of his first seven professional fights ended in first round knockout.
Fight vs. Victor Ortiz – in June of 2009, Maidana fought Victor Ortiz, the 2008 ESPN prospect of the year, for the interim WBA Super Lightweight Championship. The young Ortiz was favored in this fight, which was looked at as a test as to whether or not Ortiz was ready for the big time. Despite the odds, Maidana stunned Ortiz by winning by 6th round TKO in an action packed fight that featured several knockdowns by both fighters.
Maidana successfully defended his interim title in his home land of Argentina by knocking out William Gonzalez in the third round
What’s Next – It has been reported that Maidana will be fighting WBA Champion Amir Khan in early 2010. Khan has been ordered to defend his title against Maidana who is the interim champion. Maidana wants to fight Khan and even turned down a fight against WBC Champion Devon Alexander to pursue a fight with Khan.
