by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Argentine challenger Marcus Maidana’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza predicts Maidana will have a tough fight when he battles WBA welterweight champion Adrien Broner at the Alamadome in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday.
Ariza said the hard-punching Maidana had trained hard and had some excellent sparring with Stevie Forbes who he said provided “tough opposition and did tremendous work.”
Forbes was a one-time sparring partner of the late Diego Corrales and also fought Oscar De La Hoya.
Golden Boy Promotions has sought to build up Broner as the future of boxing but indications are that Maidana who is trained by Robert Garcia at his Oxnard Gym in California will be in Broner’s face and force him to engage and make it an exciting fight.
Ariza conceded that Broner “is very good and this is a difficult fight. We have to have the right approach. We don’t know if he (Broner) is tough but he’s come as far as he has, because he’s good.”
However, Ariza believes that the southpaw Maidana’s experience at this level will be a plus factor.
While Broner is from a great boxing city, Cincinnati, Maidana is among Argentina’s boxing greats of recent years such as Sergio Martinez and Lucas Matthysse.
Broner is undefeated with a record of 27-0 with 22 knockouts while Maidana sports a 34-3, 31 knockout slate.
Boxing columnist Briggs Seekins believes this fight could be a “put up or shut up time for Broner.”
He said that either way Maidana is “exactly the kind of hard-nosed, heavy handed welterweight so manyt fans wated to see Broner fight next, after his split-decision victory over Paulie Malignaggi.
Seekins points out that Maidana is “an all-action gunslinger with a fan-base. If he can knock off Broner, he suddenly puts himself in the welterweight division's most relevant conversations.