By Chris Williams: WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s) will finally get back in the ring on August 28th against former WBO light welterweight champion DeMarcus Corley (37-13-1, 22 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout at the Estadio Luna Park, in Buenos Aries, Argentina. Maidana, 26, has been out of action since destroying Victor Cayo by a 6th round stoppage on March 27th of this year due to management problems. Originally, Maidana was said to have back problems, which ruined a fight against Timothy Bradley.

But later it was learned that Maidana was having management problems. Thankfully he’s now fixed the issues and is ready to get back in the ring. What seems rather strange is that Maidana is picking the 36-year-old Corley to fight instead of someone ranked in the top 15 or at least a good B level fighter. Corley was one of the best light welterweights in the division seven years ago, but he’s been having hard times in the past four years and has lost an incredible nine times out of his last 15 bouts.

Corley can still punch but his chin is very vulnerable to heavy shots like the ones that Maidana throws and it’s hard to imagine Corley lasting more than three rounds with Maidana unless he takes it easy on him and holds off on throwing his power shots. Corley has been stopped by Miguel Cotto, Jose Alfaro (not a big puncher) and Freddy Hernandez in the past four years.

The fight that boxing fans want to see is Maidana vs. Amir Khan. However, that doesn’t appear to be the fight that Khan’s promoters want to put him in for some reason. They’re looking to match Khan up with the winner of the July 31st bout between lightweights Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Juan Diaz. Both Marquez and Diaz are a lot smaller than Khan, fight in a smaller division and don’t have the huge punching power that Maidana possesses. Khan has a history of being hurt in fights when hit hard, and it’s pretty easy to understand why Khan’s promoters aren’t tripping over themselves to try and put Khan in with Maidana.

There’s little question that Khan has the better boxing skills and hand speed compared to Maidana. However, Maidana has a way of cutting off the ring against runners and would literally force Khan to fight him at close range sooner or later. Once that happens, Khan would have to rely on his chin to get him through it and there’s some serious question marks on whether Khan can take a major league punch. He hasn’t been put in with a big puncher ever since he was flattened in the 1st round by lightweight Breidis Prescott two years ago in 2008.

Maidana hits even harder than Prescott and doesn’t need to load up with his shots to deliver that kind of crushing power. We could see Khan kept away from Maidana indefinitely. Golden Boy Promotions have high hopes to make a mega star out of Khan and a fighter like Maidana could wreck all that with one punch.

As for Corley, look for Maidana to take his time, using him as practice for awhile before destroying him in the 3rd or 4th round. This won’t even be close.