Talk of an imminent ring return by former 140 and 147 pound action warrior Marcos Maidana will not go away. A while back, a clearly overweight “El Chino” posted a short video clip of himself at work in the gym, with Maidana then looking into the camera and calling out a number of big names including Canelo Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao.
Shortly after that things went quiet, but yesterday boxing writer Michael Benson put out a tweet that said Maidana, now aged 35 and inactive since dropping a second decision to Floyd Mayweather (the two fights netting Maidana a small fortune) is indeed coming back, that he is going to Premier Boxing Channel and his intention is to return as a welterweight this summer.
“Marcos Maidana has reiterated that he will return to the ring in 2019. He intends to link back up with Al Haymon’ PBC and get down to welterweight again,” the tweet reads.
Fan speculation has been rife since. There are a number of big-name fighters who fight for PBC, including Manny Pacquiao, and if Maidana can get his weight down (it is of course a big if, at least going by the recent physical condition of the Argentine slugger) and if he can prove himself in at least one comeback fight, then who knows, maybe Maidana will feature in another big fight before too long.
Maidana, who lived it up in his homeland after bagging that Mayweaher cash (and who could blame him?) would be giving us one of the truly unexpected ring comebacks if he did return. Just prior to the short gym video, Maidana told reporters that he was content in retirement, that the “fire was no longer there.” Has it returned, or, heaven forbid, does “El Chino” need more cash?
If (and again, another big if) Maidana has around half of the fighting spirit and ability he had back when he was beating up Adrien Broner and Victor Ortiz and was pushing Mayweather perhaps harder than anyone this side of Jose Luis Castillo, fans who loved him so much could be ready to give Maidana, 35-5(31) a whole lot more support here in 2019.