Welterweight Marcos Maidana had a dream farewell, to 2012, before 7,000 + enthusiastic fans at the legendary Luna Park stadium in Argentina last night when he landed a vicious left hook to the body that put Mexican Angel Martinez down for the count in the third round.

After a failed start of the year in his debut in the Welterweight division when he lost on points to Devon Alexander in February, Maidana came back with a solid win againt the tough Jesus Soto Karass last September in Las Vegas. After that “El Chino” was ready to fight yet again in 2012.

“I wanted to end the year in the best possible way. And that means a knockout. I guess people were happy as I am as they always want to see me get a knockout like I had last night”, Maidana commented.

However, Maidana knows that he will be in line for the big names yet again after this stay-active fight.

“It was a tough year where I was away from my family for almost seven out of twelve months. But it was worth it to make such an effort as I’ve learned new things from Robert Garcia. So now I’ll rest and spend the holydays with my loved ones and I’ll be ready for the big fishes next year,” “El Chino” said.

“I want a world title shot ‘cause I want to be a world champ again. That’s what we’ve discussed with Golden Boy Promotions so we’ll try to get a fight against (WBA champ) Paulie Maliganaggi or  (WBC king) Robert Guerrero. Then you have other names like Victor Ortiz, Josesito Lopez, Andre Berto or  Amir Khan. Those are the names I want and I expect Golden Boy to get them for me. I want to get back to first class challenges,” Maidana added.