Floyd Mayweather will make his twelfth appearance at the MGM Grand on May 3 when he defends against Marcos Maidana with the WBC and WBA Super World Welterweight Championship on the line.
In his last fight he went the distance with Saul Alvarez, and he'll hope to add another high calibre win to his record against 30-year-old Maidana.
Maidana will enter the ring on a high after beating Adrien Broner in an exciting contest in December. The Argentine went up against Amir Khan for the opportunity to fight the 45-0 boxer, but instead, Khan will get to prove his worth on the undercard against New York born Luis Collazo.
With an unblemished career record of 45-0, Floyd Mayweather enters his May 3 tilt against Marcos Maidana as a huge favorite, but he must be wary of his underrated opponent.
Although Maidana doesn't have the name recognition or drawing power of a boxer like Manny Pacquiao, there is no question that he is determined to push Mayweather to the limit. Even if Maidana executes a perfect game plan, though, beating Mayweather will be extremely difficult provided he does what has made him so successful over the years.
Here are the biggest keys that Mayweather must follow in order to get past Maidana in one of 2014's biggest fights.
It is no secret that Mayweather doesn't always deliver the most entertaining fights, but he constantly finds a way to win. Money is one of the most frustrating boxers of all time as far as his opponents are concerned, as his quickness, speed and incredible defensive acumen make him nearly impossible to hit with an consistency. Add in opportune counter-punching and deceptive power, and Mayweather is the total package.
Mayweather is better than anyone at establishing his style and sticking with it. While his opponents have attempted to throw him off his game in many different ways over the years, nothing has worked. Of Maidana's 35 wins, 31 of them have come by way of knockout. That type of power is quite rare, and it is something that Maidana will certainly have to account for.
Mayweather's ability to avoid getting hit may be his biggest asset, but his chin is quite underrated. It is inevitable that Mayweather is going to have to absorb some shots when he steps into the ring, and he has proven to be impossible to knock out thus far. Mayweather has certainly faced some powerful boxers in the past, but Maidana may be at a totally different level.
It may very well take a powerful combination in order to put Mayweather on the mat, but Maidana has one-punch power. Some excellent fighters have succumbed to single punches in the past, and Mayweather isn't necessarily immune to joining that list.
"I try to focus on just Floyd," Mayweather said. "I don't try to focus on nobody else. I feel people tend to stumble, trip and make a lot of mistakes when they tend to worry about other things instead of focusing on themselves."
That tunnel vision will serve Mayweather well, especially against a determined opponent like Maidana. There may be no fighter in boxing with more mental strength than Mayweather, so he should be able to hold it together.
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