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With Timothy Bradley formally turning down a revised offer to face Amir Khan on July 23, everyone "moves on" yet again, and now Marcos Maidana has thrown himself into the mix.
Maidana (30-2, 27 KO) is coming off of a narrow win against Erik Morales in April, four months after losing a spirited battle with Khan that won the BWAA Fight of the Year award for 2010. Khan (25-1, 17 KO) beat Paul McCloskey in April, which was assumed to set up a July 23 fight with Bradley, but it hasn't turned out that way, as Bradley has pretty clearly decided to sit out the remaining month and a half of his deal with Gary Shaw Productions, which it still seems nobody but me thinks is any kind of serious situation for his career, which I have to admit is truly puzzling to me. But whatever, we'll find out what Bradley is doing next soon enough.
The rumored opponents for Khan on July 23 have been Zab Judah (41-6, 28 KO) and lightweight contender Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KO). Guerrero holds the advantage of fighting under the Golden Boy Promotions banner with Khan, while Judah is promoted by Main Events and is probably a better drawing card, and still has some name value left for Khan to take with a win.
With Maidana not looking for a Morales rematch, and Victor Ortiz not looking to rematch Maidana, this is probably the biggest and best fight Maidana could get right now. As for Khan, only Judah might be more lucrative, but he hasn't recently made his thoughts clear on a Maidana rematch, so it's hard to say if it's something he wants or not. He felt he proved something the first time around, and may not feel he has anything more to prove against the Argentine slugger.
Whatever Khan does, though, expect something to be made official soon. It's only two months away.