Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana: Maidana: "With Broner you can definitely hit him."

The build-up to December 14th's welterweight clash between Adrien Broner and Marcos Maidana could end up being more fun than the actual fight itself. Neither man is known for holding his tongue when it comes to letting people know how they feel, whether it be into a microphone or on Twitter, and the two have had a few instances of bickering back and forth on the social networking site already.

Today, Maidana was asked if he feels he is the first true test for Broner. Predictably, the answer was yes, and Maidana also went on to state that Broner is not Floyd Mayweather, hardly groundbreaking news, and that he can be hit.

Here is all of what Maidana had to say, via a report from Luis Sandoval of Boxing Scene:

"I think he's a good fighter. A very good boxer. Good counterpuncher and fast. But I don't think he's fought enough to fight a hard fight. I think, and maybe I'm mistaken, I think he still needs more to be able to fight the better and bigger fighters."

Given his comments, Maidana was asked if he felt he'd be Broner's first true test of his career.

"Yes, (yes I am). If he wants to beat me he's going to have to work really hard and I'm going to give him the first test for his career. I'm here training for 2-3 months and when I fight, I come fully prepared to give it my all and ready to go.

"What I saw is that Malignaggi isn't strong. He hit Broner with punches but they weren't hard enough to be able to knock him out or for Broner to feel them. With Broner you can definitely hit him. He's not Mayweather. But we'll see how he comes out for this fight because I do think he'll prepare very good and he'll study me well so we'll have a good strategy."

While Maidana is clearly the biggest and strongest opponent Broner will have faced to date, I don't think I agree that he is Broner's first test. Malignaggi and (especially) Daniel Ponce de Leon were also tests for the undefeated welterweight from Cincinnati.

Maidana's other point about Broner not being Mayweather is correct. The natural inclination is to assume that Broner is very similar in style to Mayweather because they each employ the shoulder-roll defense, but Broner has proven to be a bit more aggressive than "Money" in the ring. Broner has been a more offensive-minded fighter, with defense coming secondary to throwing beautiful combinations. Mayweather tends to use his defense to counter his opponents and gradually break them down by wearing them out physically and mentally from their inability to land. Broner, at least thus far in his career, has had more of a hunting mentality.

Would you agree with Maidana that he actually the first true test of Broner's career? Or will his aggressive style play more into Broner's strengths than Malignaggi's did?