Fabian Maidana stops Francisco Mercado in rematch of their bizarre first encounter

Argentine welterweight prospect Fabian Maidana had more than one reason to seek revenge against Mexico’s Francisco Mercado. And hopefully the result of their fight last Saturday night at Buenos Aires’ Argentine Boxing Federation Stadium will provide just enough closure to leave their rivalry behind 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 amongst the biggest highway robberies of the new century.

Fighting with a sense of purpose and determined to flip the script on those who doubt the finishing skills that turned his brother Marcos into a boxing folk hero, Maidana went to work from the first bell trying to avoid Mercado’s dirty tactics and uncontrolled onslaughts, counterpunching beautifully and pressing the action whenever possible.

Midway through the second episode, Maidana chose to fight fire with fire, unleashing one of those classic left hooks to the midsection that have become a trademark of Mexican boxing. His foe acknowledged the power and the perfect location of the punch by falling down backwards and not getting up until referee Gerardo Poggi reached the count of ten.

EN REVANCHA, TNT MAIDANA NOQUEÓ A FRANCISCO MERCADO Y SE CONSAGRÓ NUEVAO CAMPEÓN FEDELATIN

Peso wélter / 10 rounds
🏆 Título Fedelatin WBA

✅ Fabián Maidana (23-3-0, 17 KOs) KOT2 a Francisco Mercado (8-5-0, 3 KOs)
📌 Árbitro: Gerardo Poggi pic.twitter.com/KmiOhrsodX

— Boxeo de Primera (@BoxeoDePrimera) October 27, 2024

The fight was halted with 40 seconds left in the second round, and thus Maidana improved to 23-3 with 17 knockouts while Mercado heads back home with a 8-5 (3 KOs) ledger.

Their first clash, which took place on Dec. 17, 2021 in Mexico, was marked by all sorts of illegal punches and tactics by Mercado, a late replacement in a fight that was supposed to serve as a showcase for the then-once 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, prompting referee Alejandro Guel Lomeli to halt the contest and disqualifying Mercado verbally on the ring in the seventh round.

Minutes later, with Guel Lomeli holding both fighter’s hands for the official announcement, a set of scorecards were read by the ring announcer to the surprise of the entire audience, with one judge calling it 58-58 and the remaining two cards being 57-56, one for each fighter.

The fight was thus called a draw, but the bizarreness of the whole thing would hardly stop there, since the fight was then “revised again” at some 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 warrior Johana Zuñiga in five rounds in an atomweight clash. Cudos dominated the entire bout and overwhelmed her foe until referee Ruben Figueroa halted the bout as Zuñiga appeared to be defenseless following a barrage of punches.

In another women’s bout, former champ Anahi Sanchez scored a unanimous decision win over Erica Alvarez in a ten-round junior welterweight clash. Earlier on, Silio Vilte remained unbeaten with a stoppage win in five rounds over Jonathan Arena in a junior welterweight contest.

Diego M. Morilla has been writing 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 an elector 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 Ratings 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.

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