Maidana, an anything-goes fighter

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."
--Winston Churchill

Marcos Maidana looked pretty spiffy as he stood behind the podium at the final news conference prior to his first fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May. He was wearing a dark, tuxedo-style jacket and matching bow tie, topped off with a pair of designer sunglasses. If you didn't know better, you might think he was a maître d' at a ritzy restaurant.

Maidana is a man of few words, and most of his brief comments, which were translated by trainer Robert Garcia, were perfunctory -- until he unleashed a zinger that said more about the Argentine tough guy than anything else he's ever uttered in public.

"I don't give a f--- about Mayweather," he said.

It was at that moment Mayweather should have realized he was in for an uncomfortable evening when they faced each other again, two days later, inside the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but there's no doubt that Maidana meant what he said. Behind those sunglasses lurked the cold-blooded eyes of a predator.

Mayweather intimidates the vast majority of his opponents. They would never admit it, of course, but the aura of invincibility he's earned during an unbeaten career is almost as much a weapon as his extraordinary boxing skills. They find themselves unable to commit totally to the moment and never really give it a go. Not really. Not full throttle.

Maidana is made of different stuff, a hard man not easily daunted, not even by boxing's pound-for-pound king. He displays a Roberto Duran-like disdain for opponents, backed up by the kind of obstinate determination that enabled him to survive three knockdowns before rallying from the brink to stop previously undefeated Victor Ortiz.

Maidana's rousing performance against Ortiz, in his U.S. debut, resonated with a lot of North America fans, and subsequent fights have only reinforced his reputation as a certified badass. Even his decision loss to Amir Khan, in which Maidana came off the floor to have Khan in desperate trouble down the stretch, strengthened his brand.

So what if he lost? He was a real fighter with big-time guts, and that breed will always find an audience.

Maidana's popularity went viral when he bum-rushed Mayweather wannabe Adrian Broner into his first professional defeat. Granted, Broner isn't Mayweather -- not even close. But "The Problem's" caricature of his role model was close enough to attract more attention than merited.

That changed, of course, when "El Chino" gave him a rude introduction to prize fighting on a world-class level.

The roots of Maidana's uncompromising attitude are buried deep in the soil of his native land. His father worked on a ranch near the tiny town of Margarita in the Province of Santa Fe, where Maidana grew up hunting, fishing and riding horses, pastimes he still enjoys.

"He likes guns, horses and books about old-time outside-of-the-law characters, such as 'Martin Fierro,'" said ESPN Deportes' Carlos Irusta, who has known Maidana since his days as an amateur.

"Martín Fierro," written by José Hernández in the 1870s, is an epic poem about an impoverished gaucho who becomes a fugitive. This classic of Argentine literature evokes the harshness of rural pampas life and highlights the gaucho's role in winning Argentina's freedom from Spain and establishing a national identity.

Two centuries ago Maidana would probably have been a man much like the fictitious Fierro -- a gaucho trapped between the brutality of colonial oppression and the tragedy of the indigenous people, fighting for his place in the world. It was, however, a modern Argentine hero that inspired Maidana and set him on a course that eventually led to Las Vegas and seven-figure paydays.

"I will be like Carlos Monzon," Maidana repeatedly told his father when he was a kid, still fighting in the streets.

Monzon (who also hailed from the Province of Santa Fe) was one of the greatest middleweights of all time, but he also had a dark side. In 1989, after retiring still champion in 1977, he was convicted of killing his girlfriend, Alicia Muniz, and incarcerated until he died in 1995.

If there is a link between Martín Fierro, Carlos Monzon and Marcos René Maidana beyond geography, it is the poverty from which they emerged and their willingness to do whatever it took to improve their lot.

While Maidana's official bio makes no mention of it, Garcia indicated during an interview with Showtime contributor Mark Kriegel that he believes Maidana has spent time behind bars. He spoke of the fighter's "jail tattoos," one of which is an illustration of a revolver on the right side of his torso. Garcia also claimed that the scar in the middle of Maidana's back was the result of a bullet wound.

"Marcos Maidana is not afraid of anybody," Garcia said. "He fought guys with guns. Why would he be afraid of Floyd Mayweather?"

Regardless of what did or didn't happen in the past, there is no denying that Maidana is an anything-goes fighter. He butted open a cut over Mayweather's right eye, pushed him through the ropes, repeatedly hit below the belt, rabbit punched, twisted his arm and also attempted to knee him in the groin -- a medley of fouls unlike anything Mayweather had ever experienced before.

But if Maidana figured fighting that way was his best chance of winning that was what he would do. Showtime's cameras even caught Garcia encouraging Maidana between rounds to "fight dirty."

Mayweather and his camp have carped about Maidana's roughhouse tactics throughout the buildup to Saturday's rematch (Showtime pay-per-view, 8 p.m. ET), and at one point Floyd Mayweather Sr. advised his son against fighting Maidana a second time.

"Sometimes it's best to let things go -- a man who fights like that, especially," he warned. "The guy is just a dirty fighter and anything can happen with a fight like that."