By Jim Dower: World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (27-1, 26 KO’s) was hoping to fight WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan in March for the full title. Instead, Maidana, 26, will have to be satisfied with facing unbeaten light welterweight contender Victor Cayo (24-0, 16 KO’s) on March 27th. And provided that Maidana beats Cayo, and Khan defeats his next opponent Juan Manuel Marquez in May, there’s a chance that Maidana can get his wish for a fight against Khan later on in 2010.

Khan’s new promotional company Golden Boy Promotions don’t want to put the 23-year-old Khan in with Maidana just yet, wanting to build up the names of both fighters before putting them in against each other in a fight that will likely take place in the United States. For Maidana, it could pay off if he can get past the crafty Cayo on March 27th, but it still seems like Maidana would have been much better off if he could have fought Khan.

There’s no telling what will happen in the Khan-Marquez fight, and Maidana, a pure slugger, could get beaten by Cayo. And there’s also the possibility that Khan could vacate his title later in the year rather than face Maidana, and then Marcos would never get his chance at fighting Khan. Its unclear how much more popular Maidana will be if he beats a fighter like Cayo, who is not that very well known in the United States.

It would seem logical that Maidana needs a bigger name than Cayo, and someone who has a style that matches his a little bit more for Maidana to look good in his next fight. Maidana’s fight against Golden Boy Promotions fighter Victor Ortiz last year was a perfect situation. Ortiz, a hard puncher in his own right, went right at Maidana trying to slug with the Argentinean power puncher.

The fight quickly turned into a brawl with Maidana getting knocked down twice and Ortiz once. Maidana’s power eventually was too much for Ortiz as he took out the Golden Boy star in the 6th round. Cayo is the opposite of Ortiz, though. He’s more of a Roy Jones Jr/Floyd Mayweather Jr. type clone, but without the hand speed or power that those two fighters possess.

Cayo won’t make it easy for Maidana to land because of his constant movement, and I can see this fight being one that leaves few fans satisfied. Maidana could lose, as I said, which would take away the chance of Khan facing him down the road. I guess that might not be a bad thing for Khan, because there would be less of a chance that he would be knocked out by the hard hitting Maidana.

But boxing fans would be the ones that would lose out, because they would have missed the chance at seeing a Khan-Maidana fight. If Golden Boy were smart about building up the Khan-Maidana fight, they would match Maidana with a well known light welterweight like Junior Witter, Kendall Holt, Ricardo Torres or Paulie Malignaggi. Those fights would be much interesting to see than Maidana chasing Cayo around the ring all night long.