The younger (and perhaps even p4p harder-hitting) brother of retired Argentine pugilistic hero Marcos "El Chino" René Maidana headlines a TV Fox Sports card in Buenos Aires on Saturday, promoted by Chino. Now, lest you think it might constitute a conflict of interest or that Chino is devoid of compunctions where nepotism might trump professional impartiality - know that in the amateurs Fabián was sparked clean the hell out cold by Alan Castaño. In response, instead of blackballing him or using his considerable domestic influence to impede his career from some petty sense of familial loyalty steeped in spite, Marcos immediately began training, managing and promoting Castaño. The opponent, a worn-around-the-edges Venezuelan banger (exactly a decade older than Maidana, making his pro debut a full decade earlier as well), is riding a four year unbeaten streak - and would be a perfect 10-0 with 10 kayos in that span if one fight were not overturned due to Parra testing positive for Clenbuterol afterwards. That fight was two years ago, dominating and stopping Nicolás "TNT" González on the young Spaniard's own soil. Curiously, this most recent notable would-be scalp of Parra's shares a ring moniker with Fabián. In the biggest steps up in class in his career, Parra was knocked out by Takashi Uchiyama in 2013 and Darleys Pérez the following year. Maidana is coming off a knockout victory over another 36-year-old, the Russian technician and former contender Andrey Klimov. This is sort of a lateral step for him. Klimov is a superior boxer to Parra, but at this advanced stage of their lives it may be that "power is the last to go" is the most instructive adage...meaning that Parra does at least have the puncher's chance to expose any flaws in Maidana's resistance that Klimov honestly didn't possess.
I think it'll be a firefight, maybe a couple of knockdowns swapped early, but ultimately I have faith in the kid surviving and putting the old Venezuelan out to pasture. I'm not sure about Fab's whiskers going forward, though, as he takes on better opposition in the pros... Castaño putting him into a deep & dreamless slumber with headgear on is hard to get past.
César René Cuenca in the co-main event, returning nearly three years after his second ever career loss (both of them kayos, suffered consecutively at the hands of Eduard Troyanovsky).
Yeah but a fairly padded record. Don't get me wrong, he is an okay boxer (if a total feather-fist) but he is single-handedly the reason Eduard Troyanovsky (and then Julius Indongo by transitive property in turn) became horrifically overrated.
Parra is a decent puncher and has that awkwardness factor making his punches somewhat unpredictable but I think Maidana should best him without too much issue, all he has to do is keep him at range and time him with the 1-2 There is a legal stream for the fight here btw: http://www.supertelevisionhd.com/fox-sports-en-vivo/