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Retired Floyd Mayweather foe willing to end long exile for Manny Pacquiao

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  • 2 min read

Argentinian superstar Marcos Maidana, who fought Floyd Mayweather twice, has vowed to come back to the ring for a match-up with Manny Pacquiao.

Upon witnessing Pacquiao, 40, drop and defeat a ten-year younger Keith Thurman last month, ‘Chino’ is ready to dust off his gloves to face the Filipino Senator.

At 36 years, and without a fight for five years, Maidana previously piled on the pounds after entering exile on the back a 2014 double defeat to Mayweather.

Early in 2019, the two-weight world title holder announced a shock decision to get back to training. A subsequent return was then cancelled three months later despite a lucrative offer from Al Haymon.

Now, a further four months down the line, Maidana has seriously offered Pacquiao a straightener following the Thurman victory.

“I’ve already fought with everyone. Pacquiao would be the only one that I haven’t been in with. I would go directly into that fight,” Maidana told ESPN Deportes.

“What I like is that he comes forward and so do I. It would be like a crash (of two attacking styles).

“I like Pacquiao’s style, it’s going to be a good fight. It’s a fight that people would enjoy. Not like the one with Mayweather where you have to run around the ring.”

On Pacquiao’s awesome points win over Thurman, which took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Maidana concluded: “It was surprising how he looked.

“He looked better than he did in other fights. He did very well, at 40, it’s surprising.

“There is only one boxer left for me to test myself against, Manny Pacquiao. So with that, we are waiting, I would return for him, I would like to do that.”


GREEN LIGHT

Maidana would almost certainly need a performance guarantee before Pacquiao went anywhere near signing a contract.

In his heyday, there’s no doubting the ability of one of boxing’s true warriors.

But in today’s era, way down the line and far from his premature retirement at 31, Maidana would have much to prove before any Pay-Per-View was given the green light by Haymon’s PBC.

Shedding the weight would potentially be the easy part. Convincing Haymon he’s ready for Pacquiao would be nigh on an impossibility without a warm-up fight of some sorts.