Maidana in line for Broner-Malignaggi winner, but likely won’t get fight

By Boxing News - 06/09/2013 - Comments

maidana4By Dan Ambrose: Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 KO’s) did what he had to do last night to stay in the hunt for a shot against the WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi last night by defeating Josesito Lopez (30-6, 18 KO’s) by a 6th round TKO at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Maidana is ranked #2 by the World Boxing Association, and there’s a possibility that he could get a shot against the winner of the June 22nd fight between WBA champion Malignaggi and Adrien Broner. However, the rumors are that the winner of that fight will be facing Shane Mosley instead, and that’s likely to happen no matter who emerges as the winner of that fight.

Maidana is currently ranked behind #1 WBA Diego Chaves (22-0, 18 KO’s). Chaves is facing undefeated #4 WBA, Keith Thurman (22-0, 18 KO’s) next month on July 27th for the interim WBA welterweight title. It’s possible that the Thurman-Chaves winner could also get a fight against the Broner-Malignaggi winner. Given that neither Broner nor Malignaggi has shown much interest in fighting Thurman, it’s likely that the winner of the Broner-Malignaggi fight will look to take a soft fight against Mosley next and then vacate the title rather than facing Thurman.

Mosley is a winnable fight and a decent payday for Broner or Malignaggi, but Thurman is just plain trouble. He’s too big for both Broner and Malignaggi and it’s a bad match-up for either of them. Malignaggi would probably take the fight because he’s not going to give up his strap because he might not ever win another title. But Broner has the flexibility to move back down to lightweight and continue to defend his WBC lightweight title or he can fight at 140 and try and take the titles off of Danny Garcia or Lamont Peterson.

Those would be tough fights for Broner, but probably not as difficult as it would if he fought someone as big as Keith Thurman. What makes Thurman so tough is he rehydrates up in weight after making 147 and he comes into his fights looking like a middleweight. Broner is a good fighter, but he’s no Floyd Mayweather Jr. and I can’t see him beating a middleweight-sized Thurman. I think Broner will avoid a fight with Thurman like the plague.



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