By William Mackay: WBA World light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) will be making his first defense of his World Boxing Association title this Friday night against Russian Petr Petrov (29-2-2, 13 KO’s) at the Sociedad Alemana Villa Ballester, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This is the first hurdle Maidana must make before he gets bigger money fight against newly crowned WBC light welterweight champion Erik Morales next year. The next hurdle will be to defend his title against Paul McCloskey, his mandatory challenger, who recently defeated Breidis Prescott by a very, very controversial 12 round unanimous decision in McCloskey’s home country of Ireland.

McCloskey and his promoter Eddie Hearn want to get Maidana to come to Belfast, Ireland like Prescott did, and I hope for Maidana sake that he had the fight take place in a neutral venue like the United States against McCloskey because it would be a pity to have Maidana a position where he might need to do something extra special like knocking McCloskey out just to ensure he gets the win.

I personally don’t think Maidana can win a decision against McCloskey in Ireland, not after I saw the McCloskey-Prescott fight. I had Prescott winning 11 of the 12 rounds of that fight, yet the judges scored it for McCloskey.

Maidana has to worry about Petrov first, because this guy is really quick on his feet and lot slicker and faster than Maidana’s last opponent Erik Morales. Maidana is going to have to put his feet into overdrive if he wants to catch up to Petrov, who uses a lot of quick in and out attacks to keep his stronger opponents from landing. I can’t think of a worse opponent for Maidana to have picked and I think there is a chance he’ll really struggle in in this fight.

Maidana will still likely win just based on cleaner and harder landing shots, but I think this is going to be a fight where Maidana won’t impress unless he goes after Petrov in the early rounds. It’s a good preparation for the running style that McCloskey uses, so I think this will definitely help Maidana for that fight.