Marcos Maidana still in the hunt to face Floyd Mayweather on May 3

Marcos Maidana isn't yet out of the race to face Floyd Mayweather on May 3, as two different scenarios have been rumored. But while Maidana is still in the hunt with Amir Khan to face the pound-for-pound king, his team released a statement clearly saying that there is no deal done:

"Before different stories begin to circulate, and many questions begin coming in from friends, journalists and fans - we must inform them that Marcos "El Chino" Maidana has a good possibility of becoming the opponent of Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 3 in Las Vegas - although this is far from being confirmed."

"Maidana, like the rest of us, knows the situation and, obviously, we hope the fight happens. Of course, there will be news on our next fight in the next few days. Meanwhile, in order avoid generating confusion between the fans - we have to clarify, once again, that the fight is not finalized and we have not authorized anyone to confirm [that a deal was reached]."

The two scenarios that are possible right now:

• Maidana faces Mayweather, and Amir Khan faces Adrien Broner on the May 3 Showtime PPV undercard.
• Khan faces Mayweather on May 3, and Maidana faces Broner (Broner wants his contractually obligated rematch) on May 3 or another date around that time.

Personally, I'd rather see the Khan fight, but I think both bouts are mismatches, not because Maidana and Khan can't fight, but because Mayweather is simply on another level. I struggle to see either being any more competitive than Mayweather's 2013 fights with Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez, both blowouts where Mayweather had no issues whatsoever.

All in all, it kind of feels like we're being treated to an extended hype period for a pretty standard Mayweather fight -- one where no one is going to expect him to lose or even be particularly bothered by his opponent. Usually, Floyd would probably like to have made a fight by now to have extra time to truly promote, but maybe they're seeing this whole period as promotion itself.