By Jason Kim: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is considering matching up the hard hitting Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 KO’s) with 34-year-old two time world champion Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s) next on April 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Previous to this, Schaefer had been looking to match Morales up with WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez for this date. However, Marquez has reportedly had second thoughts about facing Morales.

This will put Maidana in the enviable position to be potentially facing Morales for the World Boxing Association title, with the current WBA champion Amir Khan being pushed up to the WBA Super World light welterweight champion status. This would work out well for Maidana, for the WBC and for HBO, because Maidana has turned out to be arguably the most exciting and popular fighters in the light welterweight division.

By putting Maidana in the position where he’s fighting for the WBA title, it will bring some interesting match-ups in the future for Maidana, HBO and the WBA.

If Maidana defeats Morales, Maidana then could face former WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Devon Alexander in a fight that could take place later on this year. The winner of the Alexander-Maidana and Khan vs. Timothy Bradley fight, scheduled for the summer, would then face off for tournament like finals in either late 2011 or early 2012.

The only thing preventing this would be Khan if he were to emerge as the winner of the Khan-Bradley fight. Khan has said that he would like to move up to the welterweight division to try and get a big money fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year.

However, Khan also said that he wants to fight a rematch with Breidis Prescott after Khan takes care of the Bradley fight. Perhaps HBO might be able to get Khan to take on the winner of the Maidana-Alexander fight, and then face Prescott before moving up to the welterweight division to stalk Mayweather and Shane Mosley.

Morales stands very little chance of beating Maidana because of how shot Morales has been looking since making his comeback in 2010 after three years out of the sport from 2007 to 2010. Morales has won his last three fights during his comeback but has looked terrible in each of the four fights. He’s faced mostly B level fighters and has struggled to get wins. Maidana is going to be a big problem for Morales because of his size and power advantage.