Close to Done Deals: Khan-Maidana, Martinez-Williams II

Lem Satterfield of FanHouse is reporting that a fight between Amir Khan and Marcos Maidana looks close to finalized for December 11. Golden Boy's Richard Schafer, who promotes both fighters, says the fight will probably be at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Schaefer also says that the show will be a double-header on HBO, with Victor Ortiz possibly involved in the co-feature. Ortiz faces Vivian Harris on Saturday night, and obviously would need to win that fight. Ortiz had been mentioned as a possible Khan opponent for December 11 if Maidana fell through, but nothing serious ever came of it. Putting them on the same card might be a way of setting up a future fight between the two, but that's perhaps reading into things too much.

This is a fight that lost a bit of steam recently when Maidana had some trouble with faded veteran DeMarcus Corley in Argentina. In that regard, it's somewhat similar to a potential fight between Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander, which didn't look quite as thrilling after Alexander had difficulty against Andriy Kotelnik.

But in both cases, I think you still have a terrific fight. No matter what happened against Corley, Khan has always been a better overall fighter than Maidana, and their skill levels are not even close. Maidana's chance against Khan is his big right hand. It should be the type of fight that no matter how wide a lead Khan might build, it will feel as though it could go the other way at any moment.

Mr. Satterfield is also reporting that a rematch between world middleweight champion Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams is close for November 20, either in Atlantic City or Washington D.C.

The two first met last December, when Martinez stepped in for then-middleweight champ Kelly Pavlik and went to war with Williams at Boardwalk Hall. It was a Fight of the Year candidate the first time around, one of the most surprising fights of 2009. Since then, Williams has only fought a few rounds down at 154 against Kermit Cintron, while Martinez beat Pavlik by unanimous decision in April. HBO has backed a rematch and Martinez's promoter Lou DiBella says he's "certain that the fight is going to be a go."