By Jason Kim: World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s) had to pull out of his scheduled July 17th bout against WBO light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (24-0, 11 KO’s) due to a back injury that isn’t healing properly. Maidana already cancelled one fight with Bradley due to the same injury and rescheduled it on July 17th. Maidana was hoping the injury would heal quickly enough for him to still make the fight with Bradley.

However, the injury is preventing Maidana from training at all, and that’s not a good thing if he wants to be able to beat a tough fighter like Bradley. Gary Shaw, the promoter for Bradley, is none too pleased about Maidana pulling out of the fight. Shaw is especially upset about being informed about it today, since tomorrow there was supposed to be a new conference with Bradley and Maidana in attendance. Now that, and the fight, is up in smoke.

Bradley will now have to fight another opponent for July 17th. WBC/IBF light welterweight champion Devon Alexander has already been quick to volunteer to take Maidana’s place. Thus far, there hasn’t been any official word whether Bradley will take that fight. It would seem like an even better one than the Maidana fight, because Alexander is the full champion, has two belts and will be able guarantee a huge audience in Saint Louis for their fight.

Shaw says “I think Maidana is afraid and he’s a chicken,” according to ESPN. It’s hard to imagine a slugger like Maidana being afraid of anyone. That doesn’t seem like him. Maidana was eager to fight Bradley, as he wanted to fight all the best fighters in the light welterweight division. Why would Maidana pull out of a fight with Bradley if he really wasn’t injured? The only reason I could think of is he would be in a perfect position to get a big payday in his next fight, likely against WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, who will probably be facing Maidana next.

If Maidana had taken the fight with Bradley, he would have risked the big money fight he’d be getting against Khan and would be potentially hurting himself. But by waiting for Khan to get past Paulie Malignaggi on May 15th, Maidana would be waiting for Khan and ready to fight him for good money. It makes a lot of sense when you look at it that way. I never understood why Maidana was going to fight Bradley in the first place when Maidana has an even better payday against Khan waiting for him if he sits back and is the position to fight Khan.

Maidana always has time to fight Bradley in the future. He’ll be there later after Maidana gets through with the Khan fight. If Maidana had fought Bradley, Khan would then have to fight someone else and with his weak chin, who knows what would happen? Khan could then get beaten before Maidana, which would wreck all Maidana’s plans for a big payday and the notoriety of being the second fighter to knock Khan out. I know what I would do. I would have skipped the Bradley fight and waited for Khan. Could this be what Maidana is doing?