By Nicholas Samuilov, notifight.com
The interim-junior welterweight champion of the World Boxing Association (WBA), Argentine's Marcos "El Chino" Maidana, is training with his team in Puerto Rico prepare for his next challenge, which takes place on August 27 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California against Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero, who is also interim lightweight titlist or the Wolrd Boxing Organization (WBO) and the WBA.
While both Maidana and Guerrero were ready and always interested in fighting, there were issues that delayed the contract signing for about ten days. Maidana's team was waiting for a resolution to their complaint, which demands a unification bout with the WBA's full champion at 140-pounds, English Amir Khan, who a few weeks ago announced a July 23 unification against the holder of title from the International Boxing Federation (IBF), Zab Judah. Team Maidana, being aware of the time being wasted waiting around, decided to take the fight with Guerrero.
"A small legal battle is brewing between Khan and Maidana. Khan is the regular champion. Maidana and Erik Morales fought for the interim title and Marcos won. Now he is the mandatory challenger. Golden Boy Promotions, which handles both [fighters], and each team, were notified by WBA to face each other before September 11. And so, 60 days before that, [starting] from July 11, neither [fighter] could participate in another fight. But Khan did what he wanted and arranged a unification with Judah while ignoring the rules," said Sebastián Contursi, Maidana's adviser, to BoxingScene.com's Carlos Irusta.
"We made a protest to WBA for a solution. We asked them to remove the title from Khan. Now we are waiting for a resolution. But we were forced to take this fight because we can not wait around for Khan or anyone else. Maidana's career does not depend on Khan. So we accepted the fight with Guerrero."
