All signs are pointing toward boxing's pound-for-pound king stepping into the ring May 3rd against British fighter Amir Khan, but Aregentine Marcos Maidana, coming off the biggest win of his career over Adrien Broner, is not going to cede his shot quietly.
Broner exercised a rematch clause with Maidana, but is set on fighting in April, while "El Chino" has said he will not be ready to fight by then. His advisor, Sebastian Contursi, is making noise about Maidana's availability for early may against Floyd Mayweather Jr., however.
Realizing the closeness of the dates, Contursi admitted it's a concession his fighter is willing to make only for a match with Floyd. "Marcos told me that he would be trying to make an effort to sacrifice himself to fight Mayweather, and I told Al [Haymon] that, because everyone wants to fight Mayweather, and he would be excited about that," said Contursi.
"So Marcos would be able to sacrifice himself to get ready for May 3, but, of course, Mayweather is one thing, and Broner is another thing. So far, like I said, we don't know what Mayweather is going to do, to this day."
Another reason Maidana is resisting an April date with Broner is a personal distaste for the brash young former champion. In the buildup to their December fight Broner talked quite a bit of trash to "El Chino," and failed to back it up. Broner was knocked down twice, and famously humped in the 11th round to further the humiliation.
"Marcos was a little bit peeved after that beating that Broner took that Broner was still trying to dictate the terms," Contursi said. "I mean, to impose his conditions, like, 'I'll be fighting Maidana in April,' and stuff like that, we were like, 'He can not call the shots.'"
Despite his willingness, a recent online poll posted by Mayweather asking fans to choose between the Argentine and Khan was won by the latter. Contursi said Maidana doesn't care about the poll though, and isn't positive his fighter even knows about it.
"To be honest, he doesn't care about polls. He said, 'If I get the Mayweather fight, of course, I would want to fight him, otherwise, we'll see.' We haven't spoken to Al Haymon about it since then, and I'm not even sure that Marcos is aware of the polls themselves."
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