By Edward Chaykovsky
Robert Garcia, trainer of Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31KOs), says his fighter is much better prepared for the upcoming rematch with WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (46-0, 26KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. This past May, Maidana gave Mayweather a lot of trouble in the ring but ultimately lost a twelve round majority decision. Garcia says the training was only a couple of weeks, which wasn't enough time for the Argentine slugger to prepare. As a results, he got very tired in the second half of the fight.
“All games aside, we’re ready for this fight. We’ve prepared like never before. We know it’s not an easy fight but it’s not impossible either. We’re going to give the fans what they are waiting for. What the fans want to see, that’s what they’re going to get Saturday night. Our mindset is exactly the same as it was going into the first fight. We do not need a knockout to win. We can win a decision. We can win a decision by dominating every round," Garcia said.
"Marcos dominated for half the fight last time before he slowed down a little and sort of faded. He didn’t quite have the energy to do what he wanted for 12 rounds. The difference for this fight is that we had eight full weeks of training and not just five. He had more sparring, much better sparring. Chino gained a lot of confidence in the first fight. That’s a big plus going into the rematch. He feels stronger, mentally and physically. He’s ready to do what he couldn’t quite do last time and that’s fight his fight for 12 rounds.’’
