By James Slater: Following on from his quick, relatively easy-looking 4th-round stoppage of Petr Petrov on Friday night, interim World Boxing Association (WBA) 140-pound champ Marcos Maidana is in the mood to fight again before the end of the year. Wanting, no, CRAVING, big fights, “El Chino” spoke to Fightnews about his desire to fight either of Erik Morales, Amir Khan or Timothy Bradley next.
“Erik Morlales has been saying many things and calling me out,” Maidana said. “It’s not personal, ‘cause I respect him. He did his part against Cano and I did my part against Petrov. So if he wants the rematch with me and unify the titles, I’m ready for him in December. He said I didn’t wanna give him the rematch and that was a lie. I put my WBA title and he puts his WBC title on the line and we have a fight in December. If he’s not ready he should shut up and I’ll face some of the other big guys.
“I’ll waste no time in repeating my call to “The Queen, Khan,” because everybody knows he runs scared of me.”
Along with Morales and Khan being put on notice, Maidana’s trainer, Rudy Perez, also “dared” Tim Bradley to face his fighter before the end of the year.
Either of the three names Maidana is gunning for would make a potentially great and exciting fight. Morales gave Maidana all he could handle back in April, while Khan defeated the Argentine in a 2010 FOTY candidate. As for Bradley, he is still sorting out his legal issues, but he may be back in the ring before the end of the year (with a spot on the Pacquiao-Marquez III card being mooted). It seems then, that of the three big names Maidana has called out, a second fight with Morales is the most likely.
Khan faces Lamont Peterson in December, so he’s out, and Bradley’s immediate future remains unclear (also, as a first fight back after almost a year out, it would be a surprising move by Bradley if he were to fight someone as dangerous as Maidana) – so that leaves the incredible “El Terrible.” Maybe, seeing as how Richard Schaefer spoke recently of Morales’ desire to fight again in December (in what would be his first defence of the WBC 140-pound belt he picked up with that win over Pablo Cano last week), he and Maidana will indeed hook up again here in 2011.
Morales, who fought the April fight with Maidana with the handicap of a swollen shut eye, feels he can definitely beat the man who out-pointed him. Maidana, as he made clear to Fightnews, is more than ready to do it again. Let’s see if the rematch actually happens.