Team Maidana: Marcos Never Ducked or Accepted a Tim Bradley Fight

A few days ago, we discussed the potential for an August 6 fight between Robert Guerrero and Marcos Maidana, and I mentioned my feeling that Maidana might not be easy to pin down for the fight, since he's very selective about his opponents and his fight dates in many ways, specifically noting the strange turn of events last year that saw Maidana scheduled for two dates with Timothy Bradley, only to pull out of both.

Maidana's adviser Sebastián Contursi disagreed with my stance, and felt it necessary to clear the air.

"Maidana never ducked anybody," said Contursi. "He was offered $190,000 US by his former manager Mario Margossian to face Bradley last year with only six weeks to train, and that's exactly why he didn't take the fight. I repeat, Maidana never accepted the fight. His former manager did on Maidana's behalf.

"In fact, after that Maidana hired lawyers and terminated his contract with his former manager after finding many anomalies that are now under investigation. When he realized that Maidana was not going to take the fight, this former manager lied to Golden Boy Promotions by citing that Maidana had a back injury."

As for future fights, rematches with Amir Khan and Erik Morales are high on Maidana's wish list, and Khan has a deadline to accept a mandatory rematch with Maidana, who holds the interim WBA title at 140 pounds.

"All parties involved were notified by the WBA last week that the deadline for Khan to meet his obligation is September 11," said Contursi.

As for Morales, that rematch was discussed for a July 30 pay-per-view. That entire show is now off the schedule. Maidana was previously reported to be asking for "too much money," but Contursi says that's not the case.

"Maidana is absolutely willing to give Morales a rematch, of course under fair terms. For that rematch, we requested a certain amount, which was absolutely logical. In fact, the same amount of money that Morales himself was asking for. In the end, Golden Boy Promotions said they didn't have the money to pay the fighters."