Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Marcos Maidana fight won’t go the distance
Lem Satterfield
April 30, 2014
LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. said he wants Marcos Maidana to "try to get rugged and rough" and to "bring his best" when they meet on Saturday night at the MGM Grand on Showtime Pay-Per-View.
Mayweather (45-0, 26 knockouts), 37, shared his thoughts during a Tuesday interview with reporters in the VIP room of the MGM, site of his RING and WBC welterweight championship defense against WBA counterpart Maidana (35-3, 31 KOs).
Moments earlier, Maidana and his trainer, Robert Garcia promised to make Mayweather "suffer" and to turn the matchup into a "street fight."
"If he brings his best, then he may be the first guy to actually make me dig into my bag of tricks and pull out my A-game," said Mayweather. "Hopefully, he makes me pull out my A-game because throughout my career, all that I've had to use was my B- and C-game to beat every guy. I've never had to use my A-game over my B-game, so we'll just have to see."
The 30-year-old Maidana has won four straight fights, three of them by knockout, and was last in the ring for December's unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Adrien Broner, whom he dropped in the second and eighth rounds for his current belt. Maidana last suffered defeat against southpaw Devon Alexander in his 147-pound debut in February 2012.
"It's not just his last fight against Broner that I'm looking at. I'm looking at his last four fights. I'm not just judging him off of his last fight but his last four fights," said Mayweather. "He's done a superb job and he's done a good job and he's the guy that we chose. He's got an 80 percent knockout ratio, so, you know, I can't sleep on this guy."
Mayweather was dazed in fights against skillful boxer-punchers DeMarcus Corley and Shane Mosley although neither could nail him with consecutive or finishing blows.
But Maidana said he strongly believes he can do what those two fighters could not, this despite not being able to finish off Broner, who skipped the 140-pound division for a rise from 135 to 147. After defeating Paulie Malignaggi for the WBA's belt in June of last year, Broner then faced Maidana.
"Not taking anything away from Adrien Broner but when I was at 130, I gradually moved up. Adrien Broner was a lightweight or a junior lightweight that moved all the way up to welterweight. Maidana didn't knock Adrien Broner out. Now we're going to look at this and you're going to tell me this is a blown-up lightweight that you couldn't knock out?" said Mayweather, who has fought at 154 pounds three times.
"You knocked him down but you couldn't finish the job. So I just look at weight different scenarios and weigh things out. We'll see what he brings to the table on Saturday night…in my case, I don't think it's about the weight. It's mental. It's about the mental weight. You've got a lot of guys that hit hard; you've got guys that are fast and you've got guys that are strong. But when it comes to mentally, I don't think that guys can go to that level that mental level that I'm at."
MAYWEATHER: 'WE DON'T LOOK FOR THIS FIGHT TO GO THE DISTANCE'
Mayweather has all but stated that Saturday's bout will end in a knockout.
"I love accomplishing certain things. That's a part of my legacy, of course, but I don't go in there just winning this belt. I want to look impressive and I want to put on a good show and we don't look for this fight to go the distance," said Mayweather.
"Robert said that this guy is talking about looking for the knockout and I know that we're looking at the fight not going the distance, so you're going to get a helluva a fight on Saturday. I can guarantee you that."
Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Marcos Maidana fight won't go the distance - Ring TV
Morales was straight walking him down. 
He could be saying this to get more pay per view numbers. But with the way Maidana fights, I think he may be right. He might definitely show out Saturday night, but I still don't know if he has the power to knock him out.