By Jesse Ramos: WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) went life and death with former WBO light welterweight champion DeMarcus Corley (37-14-1, 22 KO’s) on Saturday night, beating him by an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision at the Estadio Luna Park, in Buenos Aires, Destrito Federal, Argentina. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 115-112 and 116-110. Maidana looked to have won the fight by two or three rounds. It was a closer than I thought it would be, but a lot of credit has to go to Corley.
He took Maidana’s best shots and got off the deck in the 7th round to really take the fight to Maidana in rounds ten, eleven and twelve. Maidana did the pursuing in the pursuing through most of the fight. However, Corley came back in the 10th and had Maidana hurt from some big left hands to head. He continued to give Maidana the business in the 11th and 12th rounds. Maidana just looked like he had left it all in the first nine rounds and didn’t have enough energy to fight hard in the last three. Maidana put Corley down in the 7th with a hard right hand. He also had Corley hurt in the 6th and 9th rounds. However, Corley recovered well from the shots and turned the tables on Maidana in the last part of the fight when it was Corley’s turn to hurt Maidana.
All in all, it was not an impressive performance by Maidana. If WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan was looking for any of an excuse not to fight Maidana, I think he got one tonight in Maidana’s dismal performance against Corley. But then again, the shots that Maidana landed on Corley in this fight, I don’t know that Khan could take those kinds of punches. Corley was hit a lot in rounds five through nine, and I don’t think Khan would have been able to make it out of any of those rounds if he had been the one getting hit. However, Maidana’s poor performance alone may be enough for Khan to have an excuse not to fight Maidana.