It looks as if Floyd Mayweather’s next fight is set, and it’s going to be a September rematch against Marcos Maidana. At least if you want to believe what Mayweather said in a video interview prior to the BET Awards. He hasn’t made any such announcement to the boxing media, but a Maidana rematch wouldn’t come as a big surprise, either.
As soon as the first fight ended, talk began of a potential second go between the undefeated pound for pound kingpin, and the hard-charging Argentine slugger. Yet, would a Mayweather vs. Maidana rematch really live up to the hype? By all accounts, we’ve already seen Maidana’s best possible effort against Mayweather. He made Mayweather work hard, he bothered him throughout and even slowed him down to the body, performing a wonderful Jose Luis Castillo impression fueled by more raw aggression and power.
However, of the two, it’s Mayweather that will be able to make superior pre-fight adjustments, as well as take his performance to the next level. Not to mention that if he had perhaps been less than 100% focused for Maidana the first time around, it wouldn’t happen again.
There’s certainly a group of boxing fans who would be eager to see Mayweather vs. Maidana II — Argentinians and Maidana supporters, namely, along with the Mayweather haters who believe he’s always this close to being knocked out if he’d only face somebody worthy. Of course, those some haters would likely lambast Mayweather for rematching somebody the world already saw him cleanly defeat, creating a lose-lose scenario of sorts.
There’s no shortage of potential Mayweather opponents, yet Danny Garcia is taking a tuneup at 140 lbs in August, Amir Khan can’t do September for religious reasons, Erislandy Lara is busy with Canelo Alvarez, and Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman are at least a fight away — ideally a fight against one another. Indeed, the list of ideal Mayweather opponents for his next fight may now be topped by the new middleweight world champion, Miguel Cotto, a more deserving and intriguing candidate for a rematch, in this writer’s opinion.
Stay tuned for further updates on Mayweather’s next fight and we’ll see if this BET Awards interview ends up accurately breaking the story.
