Mayweather vs. Maidana II: Repeat or Revenge?

Floyd Mayweather Jr. will once again do battle with Marcos Maidana on Saturday, marking only the second time the pound-for-pound champ has granted a rematch.

The previous time came against Jose Luis Castillo after a very close and controversial unanimous decision. Many fans and ringside observers felt that Castillo had done enough to win the bout, but the three judges felt otherwise.

Similarly, some people felt that Maidana had won the first fight because he took some of the early rounds, but the judges ruled in favor of Mayweather—with the exception of the one who scored it a draw.

But Maidana is hungry and ready for redemption; he wants to prove that he has what it takes to win. And Mayweather wants to show why his record is still unblemished. Thus we are left with a repeat-or-revenge scenario.

In the first fight, the Argentinean slugger came out swinging, firing ferocious overhand punches and backing Mayweather against the ropes. Maidana put the heat on, trying to make it a rugged fight, essentially throwing the kitchen sink at his opponent.

Early on in the bout, Maidana had some success, as he was able to land a couple of decent left hooks to the body followed by his signature overhand right hook. But despite the aggression, none of the shots really landed flush on the elusive 37-year-old.

Maidana had this to say about the first fight, per Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports: "The first fight, I think that my attack, the pressure, was very good, but I didn't do well with my distance control. I think I smothered a lot of my punches. I wasn't able to really catch him with good, solid shots, being able to extend my punches, and that's one of the things that I'm working on.” 

If Maidana hopes to win this time around, he will have to land some of those big punches. After the last fight, Mayweather claimed in the ring that he purposely made the fight toe-to-toe to provide more excitement for fans: “I wanted to give the fans an exciting fight. Normally I box, I move, I blow the other guy out.”

We heard similar remarks after his fight with Miguel Cotto, another fight where we saw close, action-packed rounds. For the Maidana fight it’s hard to tell if Mayweather was just saying that because it was a tougher fight than expected. Regardless, in this fight we’ll likely see him go back to what he does best, which is outbox his opponent.  

That brings us to our first scenario: a repeat performance that is equal to or better than his previous one. Mayweather kicked it up a notch in the later rounds, which ultimately proved to be the difference in the fight. He is a fighter with a history of starting slow, gradually making adjustments to outwit and outbox his opponent.

Therefore, in the rematch with Castillo he already knew his style and what his strategy was going to be. In turn, it ended up being an easy night for Mayweather, erasing doubts about his performance in the first fight.

Could Maidana be facing a similar fate in the rematch to the one Castillo did? It’s very possible, if Floyd fights the style he knows best.

On the contrary, Maidana is willing to do whatever it takes to win, as we saw in the last fight. He was using roughhouse tactics such as elbows, low blows and at one point even a knee. It appears that Maidana may use that strategy once more.

Trainer Robert Garcia didn’t seem to mind Maidana using the strategy, and there is clearly no love lost between the camps. Mayweather commented on the matter for reporters: "He's supposed to be one of the best trainers in the sport, but I think it's totally disrespectful to the sport of boxing for a trainer to be telling the guy to be dirty."

Kenny Bayless will be replacing Tony Weeks as the referee in this fight, which might limit Maidana in the use of some of those "dirty" tactics.

But for Maidana to win he’ll have to do more than he did in the first fight. He will have to continue to put the pressure on and use the jab more to throw off Mayweather’s rhythm. We talked about how this fight might turn out to be like the second Castillo fight, but what if this fight turns out to be likes another well-known rematch?

Let’s briefly reflect on Roy Jones Jr. and Antonio Tarver. In their first match, Jones Jr. outboxed Tarver to what was seen as a closely contested majority decision. Tarver sought revenge in a bout that was titled “More Than Personal”. In the second go-round, Tarver floored his opponent with a brutal left hook, sending Jones crashing to the canvas.

And just like that, the fight was over on a punch that Jones Jr. never saw coming. The result was shocking because Jones Jr. lost only one time before, on a disqualification. A former pound-for-pound great was never the same.

For Mayweather, who is getting up there in age, the same is possible against a fighter who thrives on reckless power shots. But the 37-year-old really hasn't lost much of a step, and thus it will still be hard to catch him square on the button.

In the beginning of the Jones Jr. vs. Tarver rematch, the referee said, “Do you have any questions?” To which Tarver’s rebuttal was “I got a question: Do you have any excuses tonight Roy?”

And for this fight on Saturday, after the claims of dirty tactics, controversy with the gloves and other issues in the first bout, Maidana and Garcia must be feeling the same way that Tarver did on the night of the rematch.

However, this fight still has a better chance of being more like Mayweather vs. Castillo II than Tarver vs. Jones II. But for a determined Maidana, he still has a puncher's chance.

Follow Evan @Emoneyball22 or @Fightcornernews.