By David P. Greisman 

The argument about which gloves Marcos Maidana could and would use for his first fight with Floyd Mayweather brought drama up until the last minute.

Though the rematch is official for Sept. 13, Maidana and his team had been coy about whether the Argentine brawler would be able to use his preferred gloves this time around.

There’s a reason for that.

“To tell you the truth, it hasn’t really been finalized yet,” Maidana told reporters in a conference call on July 14, with Golden Boy Promotions’ Eric Gomez serving as a translator. “As you know, in the first fight, he didn’t allow me to use my gloves. I’m sure that’s going to be the situation again this time. 

“I want him to allow me to use my gloves. I want it to be finalized already, the glove situation. I want to be able to use my gloves. For some reason he’s not allowing me to use my gloves. I don’t hit that hard. I don’t hit as hard as Canelo [Alvarez].”

Why, then, would he sign for this fight if the gloves situation had not yet been resolved?

“Because the gloves is not a big issue,” Maidana said. “If I’m going to beat him, I’m going to beat him no matter what gloves I use. I would like to use my gloves. So that’s not the important factor. If I’m going to beat him, I’m going to beat him one way or the other.”

He doesn’t think Mayweather fears him — “When you’re at his level, a great fighter like him, I don’t think you’re afraid. There’s some reason he’s not allowing me to use my gloves, but it doesn’t matter.”

As for the possibility that this is Mayweather playing mind games: “He can do whatever he wants. He’s not going to get into my head. I think he’s just being careful. I think it’s a bit of respect for my power.”

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, Maidana accepted a payment of $1.5 million from Mayweather last time in order to switch gloves from Maidana’s preference to another Everlast product, taking money rather than keeping the gloves he wanted and calling Mayweather’s bluff about whether he’d still fight.

Rafael asked Maidana about this on the call, and Maidana twice denied it.

“It’s just a rumor,” Maidana said, and then was pressed again on it: “No, I didn’t get paid anything.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email atfightingwords1@gmail.com