By Sean McDaniel: WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (31-2, 28 KO’s) is prepared to face his World Boxing Association mandatory challenger Paul McCloskey (23-1, 12 KO’s) next, and then provided that Maidana wins that fight, he then wants to face WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley after that.

The McCloskey fight will be an easy one to make, as he wants the title shot after beating Breidis Prescott by a 12 round unanimous decision in September. The Bradley fight may be off limits for the time being, however, because Bradley is hoping to get a big payday fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in 2012.

Bradley is already is scheduled to fight on the Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez undercard on November 12th against 40-year-old Joel Casamayor. Bradley isn’t going to want to take a dangerous fight against Maidana while he waits on the Pacquiao fight. That’ll never happen.

McCloskey’s promoter Eddie Hearn wants to get Maidana to come over to Northern Ireland so that McCloskey can enjoy a huge pro-McCloskey audience like the one he had for the Prescott fight. It might not be realistic for Hearn to be asking for this right now due to the controversy that surrounded McCloskey’s win over Prescott.

Non-UK boxing fans thought Prescott won the fight, whereas as fans from the UK were pretty much united in thinking that McCloskey had done more than enough to win. It’s doubtful that Maidana will want to put himself in the same position as Prescott was in and put his trust in the judging over there. It’s too bad, though, because if not for that, it would be a great fight to have in Norther Ireland. But probably not now.

Maidana defeated Petr Petrov by a 4th round last month, knocking him down twice with big shots. It was a good performance from Maidana after his poor performance against Erik Morales last April.

McCloskey struggled against Prescott, appearing to lost the first six rounds of the fight and getting knocked down in the 1st. McCloskey started to make a comeback in the 7th and appeared to win at least half of the last six rounds, but nearly enough to win the decision. Many of McCloskey’s punches missed badly during the last four rounds, yet the Irish crowd cheered anyway and may have influenced the judges with the loud cheering. In the final seconds of the 12th, McCloskey was badly staggered by Prescott and was so hurt that he continued to stagger long after the fight had ended. Shockingly, the judges gave McCloskey the 12th as well.