Would sell out a 50k seater in Argentina, great match up. Bring the fans back to boxing, Maidana vs Matthysse and Rios vs Provodnikov please.:good
* Neither fighter wants it * They're in different weight classes * Matthysse is GBP, Maidana is Haymon Boxing
Because they weren't forces at JWW together for very long. And because Maidana was in the mix at 147 where Golden Boy was stacked and appeared to want to use him as a stepping stone while Matthysse was a wrecking machine scaring off top opponents until the calendar turned to 2013 where he was either going to be crowned from beating Garcia or allow Garcia to theoretically become a star by beating him. After Matthysse lost, Maidana beat Broner to earn the Mayweather fights while Matthysse considered retirement before facing two lower level opponents than usual in 2014... As much sense as it made, it also made sense to avoid matching them together yet. They can face the two of them off whenever they want and it will do the same big business in Argentina regardless. So if you know how promoters work, you can see why it never was really worth it. Still hoping it happens sometime soon, though.
Hmm... I know that neither have ever said they wanted it and have specifically said they don't want it, so I guess I figured Golden Boy never even bothered to try. Man the timing for it at the end of this year would be perfect (with each of them facing a contender beforehand).
Three wins and a draw, but all fights were reportedly close. I think Matthysse will do well to get past Provodnikov. If he manages that then I think a Pacquiao fight may be on the cards.
A: They're friends. Yes they fought a bunch of times in the amateurs but trading blows with your friend with 8oz gloves and no head gear is completely different. You know Maidana's tats? Yeah, Matthysse (who is a tattoo artist) drew some of them on.
I think maybe this idea that they didn't want to is only half true. From what Ive seen and read, Maidana and team never really wanted it, but Matthysse was always open to the idea. If someone has a source where Lucas said he didn't want to because they were friends Id like to see it. I think it would be cool if they put their friendship first like that, but I always read and heard Lucas saying he would take that fight. Maybe he says that publicly though and behind the scenes he made it clear they would prefer not to fight eachother. Makes sense.
I saw it in interviews prior to the Garcia fight and again in an interview post-Molina, Matthysse went into detail. He was talking about how they were in the back of a vegetable truck as kids, they worked together. Years later they met again in first class of a flight home to Argentina, both national boxing stars and were like "we didn't do badly did we?".
