By Dan Ambrose: WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) did his part in making a fight with WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) happen last Saturday night by defeating DeMarcus Corley (37-14-1, 22 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision at the Estadio Luna Park, Buenos Aires, Distrito Federal, Argentina.

Maidana had Corley down in the 7th round from some big power shots but was unable to finish him off, even though he pummeled him in both the 7th and 9th rounds. Maidana would later fade and look less than impressive in the last three rounds of the bout. But he did what he was supposed to do by getting the win by the scores of 117-110, 117-110 and 115-112.

Now it’s up to Khan to see if he’s willing to fight Maidana or if he wants to continue to put the fight off while he takes on more familiar names in the sport.

Khan lost out on a big opportunity when one of boxing’s biggest stars lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez decided to stay in his own weight class and fight WBO lightweight interim champion Michael Katsidis instead of Khan.

This left Khan without a smaller, less powerful opponent for him to fight. Now if Khan wants to fight someone, he and his promotional team are going to have to dig someone up by December. Khan wants to fight on December 11th in Britain. However, for the fight to be shown on HBO in the United States, Khan will have to pick a quality opponent like Maidana or Victor Ortiz to fight.

Khan previously beat Ortiz in the amateur ranks, but that was with protective head gear on. Ortiz hits at least as hard as Maidana, if not harder. He would be a lot of problems for Khan because of his power and his hand speed.

Maidana is not that fast, but Ortiz is. Khan might be better off taking on Maidana rather than Ortiz right now. If Maidana is truly as bad as he looked against Corley, then this should be a fight that Khan can win as long as he doesn’t hit too much.

If Maidana hits Khan with anything flush, Khan might end up getting stopped. But the real question is whether Khan will even take the fight with Maidana.