Marcos Maidana or Oscar De La Hoya? Who Offered Floyd Mayweather the Toughest Test of His Career?

Floyd Mayweather has had several high-voltage boxing clashes, but only a few of his fights are registered in the history books. From among his 50 fights, Mayweather’s iconic slugfests with Oscar De La Hoya and Marcos Maidana rank among the best fights of his career.

This is because both of these opponents took Mayweather into deep waters in their fights and truly tested his skills.

Mayweather first fought Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 for the WBC super-welterweight title. By this time, ‘Golden Boy’ was in the final stages of his career, whereas ‘Pretty Boy’ was in his prime.

As usual, ‘TBE’ began the fight with his jabs and defense. De La Hoya tried to enter his compatriot’s defense, and he found some success with the same in later rounds.

Mayweather kept himself active, and he scored the vital points by attacking with his jabs and body shots. On the other side, De La Hoya looked to land more power punches. But in the end, he could only land 24% of power punches compared to Mayweather’s 57%.

In the last rounds, Mayweather turned the tide in his favor, and eventually, he ended up with an SD win.

Read More – Who Did Canelo Alvarez Draw Against?

A few years after that, Mayweather took on his most violent opponent, Marcos Maidana. Maidana, using his overhand right as his prime weapon in this fight, landed a considerable amount of those. He was also on the verge of knocking Mayweather out with the same.

That said, he threw (858) and landed (221) the most number of punches against ‘TBE’, taking his total tally to 26%.

What happened between Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana?

Although Maidana proved to be the toughest opponent for Mayweather, he still couldn’t finish his American adversary. In this fight, Mayweather dodged a tremendous amount of punches. In the later rounds, he turned aggressive and bagged an MD win.

This fight came out way better than expected. As a result, citing the fans’ hype, Mayweather and Maidana collided in a rematch. In their second meet, Maidana didn’t look as good as his first fight. That said, Mayweather went after him from the first bell itself, and he landed a staggering 51% of total punches.

Watch this story – Five Times Floyd Mayweather Almost Lost in the Ring

This fight was easier for Mayweather than his first meet with Maidana. As a result, he ended up winning this fight with a unanimous decision.

Although ‘El Chino’ didn’t win both of his fights against ‘Pretty Boy’, he certainly proved to be the boxing great’s sternest opponent of all time. However, on paper, the SD against ‘Golden Boy’ will be seen as Mayweather’s toughest fight.