Ortiz knocked Maidana to the canvas twice in the second round. Both Ortiz and Maidana were knocked down in the first round. Ortiz entered the fight with an eight-fight knockout streak. Maidana's first fight in the United States was against Victor Ortíz, that took place on Jfor the Interim WBA super lightweight title.
Maidana was credited with landing 342 of 1241 punches thrown (28%), with 259 of them being power punches and Kotelnik was more accurate in landing 229 of his 655 thrown (35%). Kotelnik beat Maidana via controversial split decision, with the judges scoring the fight 115–114, 113–115, and 115–113 in Kotelnik's favor. On 2 February 2009, Maidana challenged for his first world title, the WBA super lightweight championship against Andreas Kotelnik at the StadtHalle in Rostock, Germany. At the end of 2008, Maidana had a professional record of 25–0, with 24 stoppages.
Over the next year, Maidana only fought once in Argentina, five times in Germany and once in Panama.
On his 18th bout, he won the WBA Fedelatin super lightweight title. He fought his first 18 fights in his native Argentina over two years, winning all, including 17 via stoppage. Maidana started his career in 2004 before turning 21 years old.
