By Robbie Bannatyne
By In the immediate aftermath of Marcos Maidana’s stunning victory over Adrien Broner he was quizzed on the possibility of fighting in his native Argentina. Then, suddenly, after months have elapsed without as much as the mere mention of his name in the boxing press Lucas Matthysse’s co-promoter, Mario Arano, finally released a statement on his behalf.
In it he states that his charge is intent on reclaiming a world title in 2014, after a tune up type fight in the 1st half of the year.
Arano stated, “By no later than August or September he (Matthysse) will have his belt. He will have a fight in late March or early April and then we will wait to see what happens regarding a fight for a world title”
Now it may be entirely coincidental, but my appetite for conspiracy is compelling me to believe there are deliberate attempts to brew a storm between two of boxings biggest hitters, fellow Argentine brawlers Marcos Maidana and Lucas Matthysse.
To me, asking Maidana, immediately after the biggest win of his career, whether he was willing to fight in his homeland was clearly a veiled attempt by Showtime to orchestrate a match-up between him and Matthysse. Or at the very least, it was a way of allowing the idea to once again permeate the consciousness of the boxing public.
Well who else would he fight in Argentina? You can be rest assured Floyd Mayweather wouldn’t board a flight to fight Maidana in his homeland. What happens with Mayweather stays in Vegas.
Upon the time of writing this article, I stumbled upon a statement from Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer regarding the possibility of Maidana versus Matthysse. The article was published on the Ring website on the 24th June 2012, and Schaefer is quoted as saying, “The fight that everybody, of course, would love to see is the showdown between Marcos Maidana and Lucas Matthysse. This would be probably the biggest fight in Argentina based on what I’ve been told. I’ve already discussed it with Showtime. They would love to go to Argentina and cover that fight.”
It appears that Schaefer and Showtime will soon be having very similar discussions, if they haven’t already.
What is also painfully obviously is that a proposed tune up fight in the first half of next year would present the ‘Machine’ with the perfect opportunity to bounce back from his defeat to Danny Garcia with a big knockout victory. That would set the wheels of the hype train in motion, from which point it would be full steam ahead towards Argentina for a bloody South American super fight.
Of course, if Maidana was granted the golden ticket to fight Floyd Mayweather Jnr in September then that would obviously de-rail any attempts to stage a ‘Chino’ versus ‘The Machine’ in 2014. But it would be simply delaying the inevitable.
Marcos Maidana vs Lucas Matthysse will happen. And regardless of whether it happens next year or in 2015, it will be worth the wait.
The most recent Compu-Box stats of both men tell us that a clash of these two explosive boxer-punchers would be a bloody battle of apocalyptic proportions.
The final CompuBox numbers for the Garcia and Matthysse fight showed how both fighters amassed a dead even connect percentage of 36%. But Garcia landed 225 of 626 punches thrown in comparison to Matthysse’s 206 from 566. However, the power punch stats make for mouth watering reading.
Matthysse landed 153 of the 346 powers shots he rained down on Garcia, to record a massively impressive connect percentage of 44%. That’s Floyd Mayweather territory. On the other hand, he was caught with 48% of Garcia power punches, who buzzed him with an incredible 174 shots- most of them flush on the chin.
Whereas, the final fight stats from Adrien Broner vs Marcos Maidana show that the challenger completely overwhelmed the champion by throwing a barrage of 663 power punches. Of those power shots thrown by Maidana, he landed 231 or 35% of his output as he gave Broner a beating he will never forget. Broner, although far too conservative in his punch output, still managed to find the target with 42% of his power shots, piercing the guard of Maidana with 122 power punches- most of which were accurate and landed very cleanly.
So according to the stats: if and when the fight happens, it is guaranteed to be a hellacious war, with both men giving and taking murderous punishment from the brutal beginning to the bloody end.
Basically, you do not need to be a meteorologist to see there is a perfect storm brewing between Marcos Maidana and Lucas Matthysse.