By Jason Kim: The April 9th fight between Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s) and Marcos Maidana (29-2, 27 Ko’s) will have referee Tony Weeks working the fight. Usually fighters aren’t all that concerned about who the referee will be for the fight.

Maidana though isn’t happy with the referee that worked his last fight against WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan last December. Maidana felt that the referee that worked that fight, Joe Cortez, was getting in the way while Maidana was trying to finish off Khan in the 10th, 11th and 12th rounds after hurting him badly in the 10th.

Maidana wasn’t happy with all the clinching that Khan was getting away with in the fight. Khan was doing more than clinching. He was doing a lot of grabbing of Maidana’s right arm and clamping down on it to keep him from nailing him while in close.

Maidana did what all smart fighters do when an opponent grabs their arms, he used his free arm to tag Khan over and over again to get him to let go. However, Cortez separated Khan and Maidana on at least one occasion while Maidana was tagging Khan with shots with his free arm.

It seemed like Cortez should have either warned Khan about the holding or let Maidana continue to pound Khan with his free arm. Maidana lost a point in the fight for throwing an elbow in response to Khan draping his arms around him and holding on to try and keep Maidana from punching. The elbow that Maidana threw never hit Khan. Instead it hit Cortez, who promptly took a point away from Maidana even though he never hit Khan with the elbow.

Maidana has a less mobile opponent in the ring with him with Morales and this should be a lot more interesting fight compared to the Khan-Maidana. Morales will be looking to mix it up with Maidana and he won’t have to chase Morales down to land his shots like he did with Khan.