"We're going to prepare Maidana to go in there with no respect and no fear. He knows and we know that the fight is going to be very difficult, but Maidana's going to go in there with no respect and no fear. Maidana hits very hard. Maidana has a one-punch knockout, so if he lands a punch and hurts him, believe me, he's going to go in for the kill. That's just the way Maidana is. He hits tremendously hard and that is always a big advantage for a fighter...We're going to give it our best. We're going to guarantee the best fight of our careers. Mayweather's going to be in a real fight. Mayweather will be in a real fight. Maidana is the real fighter that has no respect for nobody. When we prepare him the way we do, he's unstoppable, and that's what we're going to go out to do against Mayweather," stated world-class trainer Robert Garcia, who talked about his fighter, WBA welterweight champion Marcos Maidana, and their upcoming May 3 showdown with undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd "Money" Mayweather. Check out what else he had to say!
BT: Robert, was there ever any doubt in your mind that Maidana would get the May 3 fight with Floyd Mayweather? What was your reaction when you first found out?
RG: 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. 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, 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. First thing that I did is right away got a hold of Sebastian Contursi, who is Maidana's manager or co-manager with Al Haymon. I called him and said, "I need Maidana in Oxnard right away." We know that his girlfriend/soon-to-be wife is having a baby in early March, so what we might do is send one of my guys, or maybe even Alex Ariza, to start working with Chino [in Argentina] for 2 weeks and then head back March 10th. I want March 10th to be Maidana's first day here in Oxnard with me, so that gives me a good 8 weeks before the fight.
BT: Was it difficult or frustrating for you to have to sit back and play the waiting game during this process, not knowing if Mayweather was going to choose Maidana or not?
RG: You know what? The only thing that was difficult for me was to know and to hear that Khan could get the fight instead of us. I believe that Khan is a great fighter and has been a great champion in the past, but I think with his last couple of performances, I don't think he's done enough to earn a shot at Maywether. That was a little bit...you know, I wasn't mad, but I felt a little bad for Maidana that Amir Khan would get the fight instead of us because I think he just hasn't done enough in the last 2 or 3 fights to deserve a shot against Mayweather. But you know, everything else, going around with the poll and stuff, hey, honestly, the only person who can do that is Mayweather and I was actually enjoying hearing all of that because that's Mayweather. Mayweather can do all of that. Mayweather can wait 2 more weeks and still don't make an announcement and he gets away with everything. He's got the whole boxing world frozen right now. There's nobody Golden Boy could match up with right now in the welterweight division until Mayweather mades his announcement, you know what I mean? Everybody was waiting. Everybody fighting at the welterweight division was waiting for Mayweather's decision. Nobody knew what was next. Nobody knew what was going to happen until Mayweather called the shot and, hey, for me, that's more power to him, man. He's got the power to do it, so why not do it? Why not do something like that when you have the power to do it? Honestly, I give him nothing but credit for that. Like I said, everybody at the welterweight division that fights for Golden Boy Promotions was on hold. Nobody could make a decision. There's so many great fighters at the welterweight division that I wouldn't have been surprised if Mayweather said, "You know what? Instead of fighting those guys, I want to fight Keith Thurman." He can fight anybody, you know, or picked anybody else and made everybody wait for his decision if it was going to be Khan or Maidana and come up with a different name, and he would still get away with it. He could do all of that and much more, so the whole boxing world from jr. welterweight to middleweight was waiting for Mayweather to make a decision. If he can do it, more power to him.
BT: You started working with Maidana in 2012, shortly after his last loss to Devon Alexander. Did you imagine that in just 2 years, he would become a world champion again and you would help him reach the pinnacle of the sport and get mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather?
RG: When his manager first called me a couple years ago to put me to work with Maidana, he told me, "Look, Robert, you're going to get to know Maidana. He's not a person who likes to hang out or likes to have friends. He doesn't even want to fight anymore. I convinced him to train with you to give it another shot." He agreed to give it another shot, but he didn't even want to fight anymore. He wanted to retire after that Devon Alexander fight, but his manager convinced him to train with me. So when I picked him up at the airport, on our drive from the airport to Oxnard, it was miserable. I would try to talk to him and ask him questions, but he wouldn't answer. He was just miserable. To me, I'm like, we're going to have a hard time with this boy; it's going to be hard and I don't know how I'm going to do it. But a couple days later, he fell in love with the gym. He fell in love with everybody at the gym. He loves boxing right now. He listens to everything I tell him. And since, look, he's got the best fights in his life, he's got the best paydays in his life, so he's just a totally different person now. He trains like never before. He's motivated. He does everything he's told to do. You know, it's like bringing him to Oxnard was like starting his life all over.
BT: Obviously you've been in big championship fights before with your fighters, as well as during your own career. Are you looking at this like it's the biggest fight you've ever had to prepare for or do you prefer to treat it as though it's just another fight?
RG: No, it can't be just another fight. We're going against the best fighter in the world right now and who could very well be the best fighter in history. I've always said my best fighter of all time was Sugar Ray Leonard, but that's because I grew up idolizing him and I grew up watching his fights, so he's been the best fighter to me always. So I could still say he's my favorite fighter, but Mayweather could easily be way better than him and better than anyone else. 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. But yeah, you know, it's just amazing to know that we're going to be in against the best fighter in history.
BT: Though I personally think there's a big difference in styles, a lot of fans like to draw comparisons between Floyd Mayweather and Adrien Broner. Given the success you guys had with Broner, is there anything you can build on from that strategy or do you think you'll have to start from scratch and come up with a new game plan?
RG: You know what? I'm not going to start brand new. I do have a lot of things that we did against Broner that should also be effective against Mayweather. You just said it; you think yourself that they're not in the same league and I agree with that. Mayweather's just totally something else, but, going into the fight, it was that Broner could be the next Mayweather and kind of wants to fight the same way that Mayweather fights. You know, I'm not saying that we're going to go in against another Broner, definitely not, but there are some similarities, so we are going to take advantage of it. We are going to work extra harder for that, but you know, styles make fights. I said it before the Broner fight, nobody thought we had a chance. Everybody thought we were going to lose to Broner. Very few people gave Maidana a shot, but I always said, you know, we don't have to be better than him; we just have to come out with a good game plan and have the style to beat him. If we fight just the way we did, then we pull it off. You know, [Roberto] Duran beat Sugar Ray Leonard. I still don't think Duran was a better fighter than Leonard, but he did beat him the first time. [Muhammad] Ali lost to Joe Frazier, if I'm not mistaken, the first time and it was the same way; not that he was better than Ali, but it was just that night, it was the style, the way he fought, and he pulled it off. I think if we go in with the mentality that we had against Broner, we just have to be in tremendous shape to be able to do that for 12 rounds. The way Maidana fights, you know, Maidana's not a boxer, but he's going to come in and take a shot to be able to land his and he does hit tremendously hard, so there's alway a chance. It's something that we're going to really, really train and focus on doing.
BT: You work with all kinds of fighters; guys that are heavily favored and guys that are always considered the underdog. Do you have a preference as to which one, the favorite or the underdog, you prefer to be going into a fight?
RG: We have more fun and we love it more when we're the underdogs, you know; nobody thinking we have a chance, nobody really believing in us, and then we go in there and pull it off. That's the best thing that can happen to any coach, any boxer. You know, we've seen Mayweather on "24/7" or on "All Access" and he's doing his training camp just like another day at work; that's him, you know. He already is Mayweather and he's never going to be the underdog anymore, so he's training like it's just another day or part of the job. I think it gives extra motivation to a fighter who nobody believes in, nobody thinks he's got a shot, it gives them that extra push to train a little bit harder. The most important thing is inside the ring; just go out there and do what you trained for. Just go out there and do your job and there's always been those surprises.
BT: You've been in a few fights where the "All Access" or the "24/7" cameras have been around. Does that bother you at all? Do they ever get in the way or are you guys just kind of used to them?
RG: You know what? It's something that doesn't really affect us. It doesn't bother us. We've had them for a few fights already a few times and it doesn't affect us. We pretty much know all the guys already so they actually come in to have fun. They enjoy being with us and we enjoy having them around. It's fun. All they're going to see is training camp with Maidana training like never before. It's going to be a great "All Access". I'm sure Mayweather is going to have a great one, like he always does, and it'll be just fun to be part of it.
BT: When you start breaking down film on Mayweather, are you going to be looking at different fights throughout his entire career or are you just going to be focusing on his most recent fights?
RG: I'm definitely going to focus on recent fights. What I do with my fighters, especially Maidana and his preparation against Broner, is not let him watch Broner fights. I let him watch other fights. I let him watch the Duran-Leonard fight, I let him watch the Ali-Frazier fight; I let him watch those type of fights where the underdog pulls it off. I wanted him to watch that and I wanted him to believe that he could do it. So that's what I'll do. I'll pick some good fights out that I want him to watch where the underdog comes out and pulls it out. He won't watch Mayweather fights. I'll be doing that and I'll watch the most recent ones. You know, I don't have to go back to watch the first Castillo fight, which was pretty close. Everybody says Castillo won, but watching it over, I thought Mayweather pulled it off. It was close and it was questionable, but there's no need to watch those. I want to watch the most recent fights and I want to get ready for the Mayweather that we're going to have in front of us in the ring.
BT: I've talked to a lot of trainers who have that same philosophy when it comes to having their fighters watch film. Is that kind of a mental thing where you don't want them to see film of the opponent looking good?
RG: Look, I'm going to watch all those fights, but I can't have Maidana watch Mayweather do what he did to Guerrero or I can't have Maidana watch Mayweather do what he did to Canelo, a huge 154-pounder who was supposed to give Mayweather problems, who had a chance of beating Mayweather, and Mayweather did totally the opposite by making it look so easy. I can't have Maidana watch that. I'm gonna have Maidana watch the fights that people don't give a guy a chance and he pulls it out. I've even made some of my fighters watch some movies where something is not possible, but they make it happen. That's what I'm going to have Maidana watch and those are the fights that I'll have him watch, where the underdog pulls it off and wins the fight.
BT: Everybody always talks about "the blueprint" to beat Floyd and they bring up Oscar De La Hoya and how he put the jab in his face...
RG: (Cutting in) Well, I'm sure not going to call Oscar for a blueprint.
BT: (Laughing)
RG: (Laughing) You know what I mean? He always has a blueprint for everybody and it has never worked. I'm sure not going to listen to Oscar this time. He's given everybody a blueprint and it hasn't been effective, so no, I'm not going to listen to that. Nobody has a blueprint because nobody has beaten Mayweather, but there is those styles that have been effective against fighters like Floyd, fighters that fight very defensive, but very smart and very fast; it's worked before. It doesn't work all the time, but it has worked before, and that's the style that we have and that's the style that we're going to prepare for.
BT: Obviously people are going to say that Floyd has all the advantages - speed, defense, boxing IQ, etc. What would you say is Maidana's advantage going into the fight?
RG: Look, Mayeather does have all those advantages, but, you know, just the way Maidana fights. The main thing is we have to be in great shape for 12 rounds. We do. We have to be in great shape to be able to do what we did to Broner. Everybody thought that Broner had the speed, Broner had the power, Broner had everything to beat Maidana pretty convincingly; it didn't happen! So same thing with Mayweather. Mayweather has all the advantages, yes, but when you have a fighter who goes in there with no respect and bullies the fighter and puts his whole body on him to frustrate him, all that makes a difference. That's what we did with Broner. It's going to be a lot harder to do that against Mayweather, but we're going to go prepare for that, we're going to go train for that, we're going to get ready for that. We're going to prepare Maidana to go in there with no respect and no fear. He knows and we know that the fight is going to be very difficult, but Maidana's going to go in there with no respect and no fear. Maidana hits very hard. Maidana has a one-punch knockout, so if he lands a punch and hurts him, believe me, he's going to go in for the kill. That's just the way Maidana is. He hits tremendously hard and that is always a big advantage for a fighter. He could be losing all 12 rounds and then you could knock your opponent out in the last round and win the fight.
BT: In that Broner fight, it looked like Maidana was starting to get a little fatigued after the 7th or 8th round. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Alex [Ariza] didn't really get to work with him that long, I think it was only 3 weeks, because you guys had to leave for China, right?
RG: Exactly, Ben. Very few people...you know, you're actually the first one that mentioned that. We only had 3 weeks with Maidana; not only Alex, but so did I. Remember, Mikey [Garcia] and [Nonito] Donaire fought on November 9th, so that whole week of November 9th, we were already in Texas for that fight. Then, we got in Sunday the 10th and the 11th, we flew to China. So we came back from China the day after Brandon's fight. So with Maidana, we only had 3 weeks. He was already working in Oxnard with my assistant, but it's not the same. He wasn't working with Alex. You know, I wasn't there during his sparring. I wasn't there to do mitts with him and correct things. It was my assistant. They did everything I told them to do. I left them a note of everything I wanted them to work on, but it's not the same. I was gone also. I was gone for a good 3 or 4 weeks without being able to train Maidana. My plan was actually to take Maidana with me to China, but we figured it'd be better if he stayed because the travel, the change of time and days and all that, it would be too much for him, so he stayed. But it was only the last 2 or 3 weeks that we really had to finish training camp.
BT: As big as this fight is, I'm sure it's nice to know that you'll have the opportunity to get a full camp in and you'll be able to focus on him.
RG: You know what? That's a beautiful thing. All of our fighters are not fighting until after May 3rd. You know, Donaire fights May 10th. Mikey might fight May 17th. Brandon, some time in June. So my full focus will be on Maidana. I'm not going to leave him at all. We're going to be in training camp for a full 2 months, so he's gonna have a full camp with me and with Alex. We're going to give it our best. We're going to guarantee the best fight of our careers. Mayweather's going to be in a real fight. Mayweather will be in a real fight. Maidana is the real fighter that has no respect for nobody. When we prepare him the way we do, he's unstoppable, and that's what we're going to go out to do against Mayweather.
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