Marcos has until Friday to get it Maid-McCloskey Feb 18 return

By Jonny Stapleton

PAUL McCloskey will know by the end of this week if he has secured one of the biggest bouts ever to come to Ireland and a fight with Marcos Maidana for the WBA light welterweight world title.

McCloskey will return to action in Belfast on February 18, but it has yet to be confirmed if his next outing will be another world title tilt or not.

Team Maidana claimed they were interested in travelling to Belfast to defend against the Derry stylist, but revealed they were upset with the initial offer made by McCloskey’s promoters Matchroom.

Despite the early knock back negotiations have been ongoing over the last few weeks, but Team McCloskey have made this Friday contract talk D-Day.

‘Dudey’s’ manager revealed the Argentine has until the end of the week to accept or refuse the latest offer.

“At present negotiations are on going. Eddie Hearn is talking to Maidana’s people and is trying to get him over to Belfast, but is trying to get the best deal he can,” McNicholl told Mirror Sport.

“Talks picked up over the weekend, but we told Eddie we need to know soon. If Maidana doesn’t prove financial feasible we will move on.  If a deal can’t be made by the end of this week will we move on. We told Eddie we need a yes or no by Friday.”

Maidana, who like McCloskey has disapointing Amir Khan previous, is currently the Holy Grail for McCloskey. The world renowned puncher would give the John Breen trained fighter the chance to gain world wide notoriety as well as a world title.

However McNicholl is adamant the former European champion has options a plenty and is promising another big night for the Dudey Army early next year.

“We have plenty of other options. Just today the EBU contacted us and asked us to defend the European title, but we are at world level now. We are looking for big names and big fights and are confident of getting them. Morales needs an opponent and we are willing to fight him. We have Odyssey booked for February 18 and have a big night planed. We also have March 3 provisionally booked just incase.”