WBA Welterweight champion Marcos Maidana has now put himself in the Floyd Mayweather Jr. sweepstakes following his sensational victory over Adrien 'The Problem' Broner last December 12.

Maidana, who pummeled Broner through 12-rounds of intense boxing two weeks ago, has emerged as another candidate to fight Money May on his Cinco de Mayo fight date on May 3rd at MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Just few weeks ago, many boxing analysts thought Mayweather would be naming Great Britain's top welterweight Amir Khan as his next opponent. The 27-year old Khan booked back-to-back wins against Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz to get his boxing career back on track following setbacks against Jr. Welterweight champs Lamont Peterson and Danny Garcia.

Khan was supposed to duke it out with Devon Alexander for the IBF Welterweight championship, but decided to cancel the fight for a shot at Mayweather and perhaps the biggest payday of his career.

"Khan decided to drop negotiations to fight Devon Alexander in order to wait for a Mayweather fight. If we're being as positive as possible, we can say that it was the right business move," SB Nation Boxing writer Scott Christ reported on Sunday.

"Cynically, it was the only business move, as Khan has proven so vulnerable that risking really any fight before potentially cashing in (or out) against Floyd was a real danger," he added.

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Maidana Put Khan's Dream in Deep Jeopardy

Three years ago, Maidana lost to Khan in an epic 12-round showdown at 140 pounds. Khan, who was hailed that time as Britain's next big pound-for-pound attraction after Ricky Hatton, knocked down the hard-hitting Argentine in the first round and withstood a flurry of attacks from the Latino brawler to win the fight via unanimous decision.

However, both fighters took a different path since then as Khan succumbed losses to Peterson and Garcia while Maidana obliterated Erik Morales, Jesus Soto Karass, Joselito Lopez, and the biggest victim of all - Broner.

"Maidana (35-3, 31 KO) is without question the hotter name right now, as Khan (28-3, 19 KO) does have two straight wins, but neither of them kicked up much dust or impressed many folks, as Molina was a made-to-order bounce-back opponent, and Khan had plenty of trouble with Diaz, who was supposed to be another fairly soft touch," SB Nation stated.

Though neither fight will give Mayweather another blockbuster Pay-per-View result, the Maidana fight appears to be the most ideal opponent for Money May right now. The Argentine is fresh from the biggest win of his career against a pound-for-pound superstar, and actually, has the tools (power and ruggedness) to pull off a big upset against Mayweather.

Golden Boy should make this fight happen, because this is the second best possible fight to make out there, behind every boxing fans' Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fantasy rumble.

"Maidana's name is now in the lottery jackpot box. We all know the Pacquiao fight, at this particular time, will never happen," said Mayweather, during an interview on FightHype.com via Ring Magazine "and the reason why the fight won't happen is because I will never do business with Bob Arum again in life, and Pacquiao is Bob Arum's fighter."

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