Argentinian welterweight prospect Fabian Maidana had more than one reason to seek revenge against Mexico’s Francisco Mercado. And hopefully the outcome of their fight last Saturday night at Buenos Aires’ Argentine Boxing Federation Stadium will provide just enough closure to put their rivalry behind them once and for all.
Maidana stopped Mercado with a brutal textbook hook to the liver in the rematch of their bizarre first clash that took place in Mexico in 2021, a fight that ranks high among the greatest highway robberies of the new century.
Fighting with a sense of purpose and determined to flip the script on those who doubted the finishing skills that turned his brother Marcos into a boxing folk hero, Maidana went to work from the first bell, trying to Avoiding Mercado’s dirty tactics and uncontrolled attacks and counterpunching beautifully. and push the action whenever possible.
Midway through the second episode, Maidana opted to fight fire with fire, unleashing one of those classic left hooks to the midsection that has become a trademark of Mexican boxing. His foe recognized the force and the perfect location of the blow by falling backwards and not getting up before referee Gerardo Poggi reached the count of ten.
IN REVENGE, TNT MAIDANA FINISHED FRANCISCO MERCADO AND BECAME THE NEW FEDELATIN CHAMPION
Peso welterweight / 10 rounds
Fedelatin WBA title
Fabián Maidana (23-3-0, 17 KOs) KOT2 to Francisco Mercado (8-5-0, 3 KOs)
Referee: Gerardo Poggi pic.twitter.com/KmiOhrsodX
— Boxeo de Primera (@BoxeoDePrimera) October 27, 2024
The fight was stopped with 40 seconds left in the second round, so Maidana improved to 23-3 with 17 knockouts, while Mercado returns home with an 8-5 (3 KOs) ledger.
Their first clash, which took place on December 17, 2021 in Mexico, was marked by all kinds of illegal punches and tactics by Mercado, a late replacement in a fight that was supposed to serve as a showcase for the then-beaten Maidana.
After numerous warnings and dozens of illegal punches, including elbows and low blows, Mercado finally connected with a headbutt that caused a cut on Maidana’s right eyebrow, causing referee Alejandro Guel Lomeli to stop the match and verbally disqualify Mercado at ringside in the seventh round.
Minutes later, with Guel Lomeli holding both fighter’s hands for the official announcement, a set of scorecards was read by the ring announcer to the astonishment of the entire audience, with one judge calling it 58-58 and the remaining two cards 57-56 , one for each fighter.
So the fight was called a draw, but the bizarreness of the whole thing would hardly stop there, as the fight was then “reviewed again” at one point and awarded to Mercado in a unanimous technical decision. It is still listed in BoxRec as a loss to Maidana.
Earlier in the card, Sol Cudos stopped Colombian road fighter Johana Zuñiga in five rounds in an atomweight clash. Cudos dominated the entire match and overpowered her foe until referee Ruben Figueroa stopped the match as Zuñiga looked defenseless after a barrage of punches.
In another women’s bout, former champion Anahi Sanchez scored a unanimous decision victory over Erica Alvarez in a ten-round junior welterweight showdown. Silio Vilte earlier remained unbeaten with a five-round victory over Jonathan Arena in a junior welterweight contest.
Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a voter for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Rating Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.
