Flores: Broner Will Be Surprised By Maidana's Power

By Ben Jacobs

Strength and Conditioning trainer Cicilio Flores has been working with Marcos Maidana for his past four training camps and believes now that the Argentine is as focused as ever as he prepares to face Adrien Broner this Saturday in San Antonio, Texas.

Flores, who has previously worked with WBC middleweight king, Sergio Martínez, is essentially sharing duties with Alex Ariza, who is also helping to prepare Maidana, something which he concedes is difficult given that the usual scenario is for a trainer to work one-on-one with a fighter.

“I do what I do, I have my philosophy and we’re on the same train but on different tracks,” explained Flores.

“There are certain things that I do that he doesn’t do.  It comes down to helping Maidana.  One of the things that he introduced was the supplementation.  It is very difficult to have two strength and conditioning coaches but I’m not the boss, Robert Garcia’s the boss and that’s what Alex and I had a talk about. 

“Initially it’s tough, you’ve got to share different ideas and share training methods, but we’re here, a couple of days away from the fight and Maidana’s looking better than ever.”

Maidana spent some time back in his native land following his victory over Josésito López and upon returning to Oxnard was already close to his fighting weight.

“You know what, he actually came into camp in shape,” Flores continued. 

“There was talk of this fight happening and he got really excited about it.  I told him to take some time off after his last fight with Josésito López.  He did exactly what I told him and he came into camp in shape.

“His main sparring partner was Steve Forbes.  He’s also sparred with Darwin Price and a kid called Joseph Bonas from the Kronk Gym in Detroit, he’s now with us in camp.

“Maidana is very laid back, very relaxed, just a calm, calm soul but believe me he’s very excited, very motivated.  I’ve never seen him as motivated for a fight.  You’re gonna see a different Maidana.  He’s worked on his speed and his strength and of course Robert [Garcia], he’s the master behind all this.  He has a great strategy and it’s gonna show on Saturday.”

The bout at the Alamodome will be just the second at welterweight for Broner after what many observers felt was a close fight with Paulie Malignaggi in his last outing.  Could Maidana’s much vaunted power prove to be a decisive factor?

“I definitely feel he will be surprised by Maidana’s power.  I feel Broner got exposed in that fight.  If Paulie hit harder I think it would have been a different outcome that night.  But take nothing away from Broner, he’s a champion, he has tremendous skills and he’s a great athlete.”

In addition to Maidana, Flores also works with IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich as well as WBA Interim champion, Jesús Cuellar, also at featherweight.
“Gradovich is the hardest working guy in our gym, right now he’s on vacation and he’ll be back the second week of January for a fight around March.”