"You know what? When Maidana beat Broner and the way he did, I think there was no question that the Mayweather fight was going to be ours," stated world-class trainer Robert Garcia, who shared his thoughts on the recent announcement that his fighter, WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana, has been chosen by undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd "Money" Mayweather as his opponent when he makes his return to the ring on May 3. Long before the official announcement was made, several members of the media were erroneously reporting that former jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan was the likely candidate to land the assignment. To their surprise, however, Mayweather announced that he would let fans decide who he would face next: Khan or Maidana. After weeks of voting, the results were tabulated and Maidana was the clear winner in multiple online polls, though Mayweather took his time in making his official announcement.
"I was so confident and I was so sure that it should be us, but then, a few weeks later, we start hearing that Amir Khan is involved and it's going to be a decision between Amir Khan and Maidana. Then the poll, you know, the fans are going to vote, so all of that was kind of like a little upsetting for the team because we felt that nobody else deserves a shot against Mayweather than Maidana, especially winning his last 4 fights at welterweight, winning them all," Garcia explained as he recalled the tense weeks leading up to the announcement. "And the Broner fight itself I think was more than enough to deserve a shot at Mayweather, you know, the fighter that everybody was calling the next Mayweather, you know, Mayweather's little brother, all of that. I was surprised when it looked like it was leaning towards Amir Khan. I was surprised, but I'm glad that Mayweather took the fight."
"Mayweather's a great fighter, great champion, best of our time if you ask me, but there's always that chance that fighters have. Nobody thought Tyson would ever lose to Buster Douglas, and he did, so the chance is there. I know that the motivation that Maidana is going to have, the motivation that I'm gonna have in training camp, my whole team, we're going to do everything; train like never before and do everything possible to win the fight," he continued. "He could be the best fighter in history, so for us, to have the opportunity to fight against the best fighter in history is just a blessing to our team. And to know that the way Maidana fights and his style and the way he throws punches could give us the chance of being able to pull it off is something that we're really motivated for. We're going to be training like never before. The whole team is going to be focused. Maidana's going to be like never before."
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