By Ryan Burton
On February 25th, 2012, Marcos Maidana was dominated in a decision loss to former two division champion Devon Alexander in a fight broadcast live on HBO. The judge's final scores were 100-90 twice and 99-91.
After the fight Maidana contemplated retirement but decided to continue with his career after his adviser Sebastian Contursi was able to secure the services of world class trainer Robert Garcia. The rest is history as Maidana blossomed under the tutelage of Garcia and won his next four fights in dominating fashion.
Those victories led Maidana to a pay-per-view showdown against pound for pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. Maidana, who was anywhere from an 8-1 to 15-1 underdog in the fight, surprised many people with his performance as he was able to land more punches on Mayweather than any other fighter since CompuBox started tracking Mayweather's fights.
The fight was so close that Mayweather said that he is is open to giving Maidana a rematch in his next fight which is scheduled to take place in September.
BoxingScene.com spoke to Alexander shortly after the fight and the St. Louis, MO, native said that he felt the fight was closer than the 117-111, 116-112, and 114-114 scores suggested.
"In my opinion, I thought it was closer than that. I think he surprised Mayweather a little bit," said Alexander.
Alexander is set to face rugged veteran Jesus Soto Karass in July but said that if Maidana doesn't get an immediate rematch against Mayweather, he would love to give Maidana a shot at avenging his loss afterwards.
"After Soto Karass, me and Maidana can get it on again. People say he's improved (since we fought) so he should want to avenge his loss. Let's make it happen in the fall," Alexander told BoxingScene.com.
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