By Rick Reeno
Mayweather Promotions CEO, Leonard Ellerbe, is tabbing Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31KOs) as the hardest puncher of Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s career. Mayweather (45-0, 26KOs) will face Maidana in a WBC/WBA welterweight unification on May 3rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The fight has taken some public heat, because Maidana is viewed as a significant underdog in the fight. Ellerbe views Maidana as a very dangerous opponent with deadly power.
"In my opinion, he is the biggest puncher that Floyd has faced. Maidana is the biggest puncher that Floyd has faced until this point, in my opinion. He has one of the highest knockout percentages that's out there. Like I said, he's never, ever not in an entertaining fight. And when he touches people...just go back and look at the Broner fight. It was the second round, he doesn't even really turn the shot over, it was more of a grazing shot and obviously Broner was f***ed up and he didn't recover," Ellerbe said.
Ellerbe says Mayweather is taking no chances in training. Maidana was an underdog against Adrien Broner last December, but the Argentine puncher scored two knockdowns before winning a twelve round decision and handing Maidana his first pro loss.
"This guy, he could fight his ass off....hands down. I don't pay any attention to no odds because we're in a fight. This guy comes to fight, he's busy, he has a very unorthodox style and anything can happen in a fight. We saw in 2010, with the Shane [Mosley] fight. Floyd was in tip top shape and Shane hit him with a big shot. Floyd is preparing like he always does and we expect the best from Maidana. We expect a very, very exciting fight," Ellerbe said.
