Some of you fail to realize that some PET quality MC's won't have ear tufts or toe tufts. Nothing wrong with the cat - just not show quality. I've seen MC's from breeders that lacked it and these are from champion bloodlines. So its very possible this is a MC.
Same thing for cornish rex. Out of all my rexes I bred I only had ONE that was a true pet quality - it had everything wrong - short ears, round face, short body and no waves BUT it was still a rex and went to a pet home with people who didn't care that it didn't look like a typical rex.
Genetics are funny - sometimes you wind up with all the negative traits in a cat instead of the quality ones.
It still seems pretty unlikely that he's a pure-bred Maine Coon, since he wasn't sold as one. But could he possibly be a throwback, like having pure-bred Maine Coon grandparents? (I just learned about throwbacks in science today
) And then he would look so much like a Maine Coon.
By tufts on the ears, are they those little pointy bits of fur sticking off the top? Cierron doesn't have them, but his ears are pretty fluffy!!