Hall of Fame referee Joe Cortez thinks that Marcos Maidana is a worthy opponent to Floyd Mayweather Jr, but he is confident that the undefeated American will successfully protect his unblemished record.
In an interview with On The Ropes Boxing Radio, Cortez said that Maidana earned the right to face Mayweather after his string of impressive performances. But when pressed to give a prediction, the long-time referee said that Mayweather will just take the Argentinian challenger to school.
"I think that Maidana has earned the position to fight Floyd Mayweather now and I think that Mayweather is gonna take Maidana to school. He's gonna take Maidana to school," Cortez said.
Cortez stressed that he has nothing against Maidana, saying that the 30-year-old Buenos Aires native is a very good fighter, but Mayweather is just boxing on a different level even at this point of his long boxing career.
"Maidana is a good fighter, aggressive, but Mayweather is very crafty, has great defense, has great speed, has great lateral movement," Cortez said. "Mayweather doesn't like to get hit, he doesn't hardly ever get hit and he sure doesn't wanna get hit by Maidana because Maidana does have a good knockout punch."
And as to the debate on whether or not Mayweather made the right decision to face Maidana instead of early frontrunner Amir Khan, Cortez said that the 37-year-old Grand Rapids native made the right call.
Cortez insisted that while Khan defeated Maidana in their showdown before, Maidana has been showing tremendous improvements since their collision three years ago.
Maidana has won in his last four fights, including his huge upset win over then-unbeaten champion Adrien Broner, while Khan has not proven anything as of late despite winning in his last two fights.
"Well you know, Maidana and Khan, when they fought the first time-which I refereed-Khan ended up winning a decision. Maidana had Khan in some serious trouble in the later rounds," Cortez revealed. "Even though Khan beat Maidana, Maidana has proven himself, that was almost 3 years ago and Maidana has come forward and has beaten a good outstanding fighter in Adrien Broner."
The Mayweather-Maidana showdown for the Argentinian's WBC and WBA welterweight title is scheduled on May 3rd either at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas or at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
© 2017 Jobs & Hire All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
