Welterweight contender Marcos Maidana could become the newest client for boxing advisor Al Haymon as early as next week, the Argentine’s manager, Sebastian Contursi, informed RingTV.com on Friday.

“We have already discussed it,” said Contursi. “He [Haymon] sent out a proposal to us, and we’ve made just a few minor changes. We can possibly be signing next week.”

Maidana (33-3, 30 knockouts) is the mandatory challenger to newly-crowned WBA 147-pound beltholder Adrien Broner (27-0, 22 KOs), another Haymon fighter who is coming off June’s unanimous decision that dethroned Paulie Malignaggi for his current title.

Maidana scored his third-straight stoppage victory with a sixth-round knockout against Josesito Lopez in June, having last suffered defeat in his 147-pound debut to Devon Alexander, the current IBF beltholder, in February of last year.

Since falling to Alexander, Maidana has been trained by Robert Garcia, who has guided the careers of Nonito Donaire, Mikey Garcia, and Brandon Rios, among others.

Contursi said that he was ringside for Broner-Malignaggi, after which he spoke to Haymon and Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer about a potential bout with Broner. Contursi also talked, specifically, with Haymon about the prospect of becoming his newest client.

“I met Al Haymon two days after the Broner-Malignaggi fight in New York,” said Contursi. “We had a good conversation, and we, of course, were interested in working with him, and he was interested in working with us. So we had some telephone conversations after that. So, yes, we are convinced that he would be a good person to work with for Marcos, especially since we are considering and targeting Broner as the next fight for Maidana.”

Considered by many to be the most powerful and influential man in boxing, Haymon already has among his impressive list of clients Alexander, Broner, Floyd Mayweather Jr.,  Andre Berto, Danny Garcia, Peter Quillin, Gary Russell Jr., Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Seth Mitchell, Chris Arreola and Fernando Guerrero, among others.

“The good thing is that Al Haymon says that Broner wants this fight also,” said Contursi, “so it’s very, very possible that we can have that fight before the end of the year.”

In early May, Haymon signed Maidana’s countryman, Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KOs), THE RING’s No. 1-rated junior welterweight, just before his third-round stoppage of IBF beltholder Lamont Peterson.

Another recent addition is heavyweight Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KOs), who will be in action on Aug. 9 against ex-beltholder Sergei Liakhovich on Showtime.

“I think that it’s going to be a really good thing. What we did was we worked it out where Al came on board along with me and Shelly Finkel, and so we’re all essentially equal partners,” said Wilder’s trainer, Jay Deas, of a deal that includes longtime advisor Shelly Finkel, who is also aligned with heavyweight title-holding siblings Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko.

“We’ve been with Shelly for quite a while, so what we did was worked out a deal for Al to come on board. So we’re all partners in this venture, and it’s really quite a neat team. It was an agreed-upon thing for all of us to work together, which is quite interesting, since Shelly works with the Klitschkos. We have every opportunity from a managerial standpoint to do really well.”

Photos / Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]