By Elisinio Castillo
WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (35-3, 31KOs) issued a minor warning to the pound-for-pound king. Maidana was approached with a question regarding whether or not he was capable of beating WBC champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26KOs). Maidana is one the fighters being considered for Mayweather's return on May 3rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
"Mayweather is not invincible," Maidana said in a short statement to Ole.
Last month, Maidana pulled off one of the biggest upset victories of the year when he dropped previously undefeated Adrien Broner two times and won a dominating twelve round unanimous decision to win the WBA's title at 147. Now Maidana wants Broner's close friend, Mayweather.
When Maidana made his welterweight debut in February 2012, he took a one-sided pounding from Devon Alexander. The loss made him rethink his entire career. Then he hired Oxnard trainer Robert Garcia and won his last four fights.
"Devon Alexander is a good fighter and he had a very good win. At that moment I thought - 'this division is not for me., and this level is very difficult.' And then [adviser] Sebastian Contursi called me and told me he had a coach with whom I would do very well with. So it was in May 2012 that I started working with Robert Garcia. I changed some things, like my defense, and I saw good things happening. I desire to fight again returned," Maidana told Ole.
"When I lost to Alexander, I was considering whether or not I should be boxing. At that time, things were not going well in my career and I lost that fight badly, he beat me up. I did not know what to do and I was unsure of the future. But with Robert I started to win again and I improved my boxing. And now I'm the world champion of the division that I hesitated to continue in. Well I beat Broner, who was the favorite, the guy favored by television network and, they said he was Mayweather's successor. This fight was very important to me. And I received the awards that recognized the effort that I made to achieve this."