In what can certainly be considered fight of the year, Marcus “El Chino” Maidana (35-3, 31KO’s) from Argentina not only shut the mouth of Adrien Broner (27-1, 22KO’s), he took the WBA welterweight title from him Saturday night by a unanimous decision in front of a pro Maidana crowd in San Antonio, Texas.
In addition to that, Maidana is the first fighter to put a loss on the former champion’s record, a record that he thought made him one of the best. Maidana also set another record by not only knocking Broner down for the first time in his career, which happened in the second round, but he put him on the canvas in the eighth round as well.
It was a night of survival for Broner, who had never been hit by a man with the punching power of the Argentinean. After all the trash talking leading up to the fight, the over confident Broner was taught a boxing lesson by Maidana, who had said before the fight, “Broner has a big mouth”….but that doesn’t bother me, because his mouth can’t fight for him.”
The fight started off just as expected when Maidana went after Broner in the first round by landing the heaviest punches that Broner probably had ever felt in his career. Maidana then staggered Broner early in the round with a huge overhand right that sent him against the ropes. Broner tried to regain his balance as Maidana began to walk through the countering Broner and followed it up with an uppercut and then landed several solid left hands to the head.
The first sensational knockdown of the fight came in the second round when Maidana landed a huge left hook to the head of the former champion and it almost knocked him out of the ring. After being put down to the canvas, Broner had to entangle himself from the ropes with a stunned look on his face. After taking the eight count, Broner was able to survive the round, but he was clearly in shock. According to Showtime, Maidana landed an overwhelming 57 punches in the first two rounds to only 13 for the supposed quick handed Broner.
Maidana, a former light welterweight champion was coming into this fight with several significant wins which included a TKO against Jesus Soto Karass (28-9, 18KO’s), and another TKO against Josesito Lopez (31-6, 18KO’s). The heavy handed Maidana is a knockout artist with 31 knockouts in his 35 fights, and Broner was lucky he wasn’t the 36th victim on the champions record.
Although Broner’s nickname is “the Problem,” on Saturday his biggest problem was Maidana, a humble and no nonsense fighter that lets his fists do the talking in the ring. After clearing his head from the thrashing in the second round, Broner appeared to have won the third round. But in the fourth and fifth rounds, Maidana began to put the pressure on again as he was able to land body punches, left hand jabs and overhand rights in succession.
The eighth round turned out to probably be the luckiest round in Broner’s career. After getting knocked down by a huge right hand by Maidana, Broner took the eight count and then Maidana began to batter him all around the ring. Broner then held onto Maidana in attempt to elude himself from being knocked out and as Maidana tried to entangle himself from the clinch, he supposedly head butted Broner. Broner then put on an acting show and the referee took a point away from Maidana. If not for the controversial decision by the referee, and the additional three minutes of rest for Broner, Maidana would have knocked him out.
After the tenth round, Maidana was clearly ahead and Broner’s corner was heard telling him that he needed a knockout. Broner was not able to handle the power punching Maidana in this round either and in the eleventh round he resorted to dirty fighting by landing a punch on Maidana as Maidana was maneuvered his way out of a punch by the ropes and his head momentarily was outside the ring. In addition to this, and in front of the referee, Broner landed a punch after the bell and a point was not taken away.
Despite all the controversial calls and the ones that were not called, it didn’t matter. After the scores were read, Maidana went on to win by unanimous decision as the cards read 115-110, 116-109 and 117-109. After the loss, Broner was seen running out of the ring as he headed to the locker room as fans pelted him with cups and bottles.
After the fight, the humble Maidana said "I had to show a lot of heart to win this fight," "I did what I had to do to win." He went on to say, "This win is very satisfying to me. My plan was to win with my heart and keep going forward. Every time I landed a punch, I felt like I was hurting him.
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