By Dan Ambrose: Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s) will be vacating his WBA light welterweight title to focus on fighting in the welterweight division, according to Dan Rafael at ESPN. Maidana can no longer make the 140 pound weight limit for the light welterweight division. As such, he’ll now be campaigning at 147.

For some reason I think Maidana may find a way to make 140 after he suffers another loss or two like his one-sided defeat at the hands of Devon Alexander last February at welterweight. Maidana’s power isn’t as good at welterweight as it is at 140, and he just looked like a slightly flabby welterweight in the Alexander fight. I think he’s going to regret this move, because there are few good fighters that Maidana can beat at 147 unlike at 140.

Maidana will be facing Jesus Soto Karass (26-7-3, 17 KO’s) in a 10 round bout on September 15th on the undercard of the Saul Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This fight should give Maidana a good indication of whether he’s cut out for this division, because Soto-Karass is like the welterweight division’s version of Maidana. I can see Soto-Karass winning this fight and sending Maidana twirling back down to the light welterweight division in response. I think he may wish he had his WBA light welterweight title back after he loses to Soto-Karass.

Maidana’s lack of hand and foot speed are going to be major problems at 147. I don’t expect them to get any better now that he’s moving up in weight. If anything he’ll be a lot slower and facing bigger guys. At 147, he’ll be a fighter with good but not great power.