Marcos Maidana

Marcos René Maidana (born July 17, 1983) is an Argentine professional boxer and a two-weight former world champion, having held the WBA (Regular) super lightweight and WBA (Super) welterweight titles. A versatile brawler in the ring, Maidana is well known for his punching power.

Professional career

Light Welterweight

On February 2, 2009, the then-WBA Light Welterweight titleholder Andreas Kotelnik beat the then-undefeated Maidana (25-0, 24 knockouts) via controversial split decision, with the judges scoring the fight 115–114, 113–115, 115–113 in Kotelnik's favour.

Maidana's first fight in the United States was against Mexican-American Victor Ortíz, that took place on June 27, 2009. Maidana was knocked down three times within the first two rounds, but rallied and came back to beat Ortiz for the interim WBA super lightweight title with a sixth-round TKO victory.

After his fight with Ortiz, it was rumoured that Maidana would face British boxer, and WBA super lightweight champion, Amir Khan, who won the title after defeating Andreas Kotelnik. However, Khan opted for Paulie Malignaggi as his next opponent. As a result, Maidana was scheduled to fight on March 27, 2010 against Victor Manuel Cayo, whose record, at that time, was 24-0 with 75% of victories coming by way of knockout. Maidana knocked out the undefeated Cayo in the sixth round to retain his interim WBA super lightweight title and improve his record to 28-1, with 27 knockouts.