Maidana to hunt, fish and then track down Danny Garcia

Feb

Marcos Maidana took it to Floyd Mayweather Jr. during his hard-fought majority decision loss on May 3, 2014, at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Photo by Naoki Fukuda

RING No. 9-rated welterweight Marcos Maidana will continue to hunt and fish in his native Argentina before returning to the ring in the summer or fall, according to his manager, Sebastian Contursi.

“We’ll probably see him fighting in the second semester of this year,” said Contursi. “I would like to see him back in the ring maybe July, maybe August, maybe September. It depends on the opponent and any other issues that we would have to consider.”

The big game rival Maidana (35-5, 31 knockouts) mentioned was undefeated RING junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia, (29-0, 17 KOs), owner of a unanimous decision victory over fellow Argentine Lucas Matthysse from Sept. 2013.

“I don’t know how it came up but he did mention that he would want to fight Danny Garcia. But what he did say was, ‘I’d like to beat the guy who beat Lucas Matthysse,’ and that would be Danny Garcia. It’s nothing personal but I think that there has always been a rivalry between Maidana and Matthysse and not in the bitter sense,” said Contursi of Matthysse, THE RING’s No. 1-rated 140-pounder.

“They’re not friends, necessarily, but they respect and admire each other and they started boxing together. But you can not avoid the fact that there is a rivalry out there and that’s the fact that pushes him to want to be the best fighter in Argentina, which I think that he is, myself. Of course, I guess that’s arguable. But when it comes to boxing, Maidana doesn’t talk much about opponents that he would like to face, it’s just that for the reasons that I mentioned, he wants to fight and beat Garcia.”

Garcia has been approved for a 143-pound, non-title, catchweight bout on April 11 opposite RING No. 2-rated IBF titleholder Lamont Peterson, after which he must face WBC mandatory contender Viktor Postol, the organization announced on Monday.

Despite this mandate, Garcia has hinted at a rise into the welterweight division (potentially for a mega-bout with RING 147-pound champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Given that timetable and scenario, Maidana has reason to believe that a fight could come to fruition against Garcia, who also holds the WBA junior welterweight title. In the meantime, however, Maidana will remain on vacation.

“I was with Marcos about two weeks ago when he came to Buenos Aires where I live, so I think that he’s focused now on resting on my advice,” said Contursi. “I just told him to continue with his resting and fishing, so he’s happy to be back with his family. I think that’s very good because he’s endured what has been a very intense stretch over the past 14 months.”

During that time, Maidana, 31, has gone 1-2 over the course of his past three bouts. That run started in Dec. 2013 with a unanimous decision victory, earning Maidana the WBA’s 147-pound belt from previously undefeated Adrien Broner.

Maidana’s next two fights were against Mayweather, to whom he lost by majority and unanimous decisions in May and September of last year, respectively.

Sandwiched between the win over Broner and the first Mayweather fight was the birth of his daughter, Emilia, a year ago next month.

“When you have three tough fights over the course of a span of 10 months against Broner and then Floyd Mayweather twice and then you throw in the birth of his daughter, you’re a man who needs a break,” said Contursi, who consulted Maidana’s adviser, Al Haymon.

“I spoke to Al Haymon about it of course and then I advised him not to push it so much because that would be a mistake. So [Maidana] is with his family because I want to see, in his next fight, a fresh Maidana and not a boxer who is just there for the money.”