By Dan Ambrose: Sometimes you wonder what’s going through the head of Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s) to take some of the fights that he does. Maidana just lost a one-sided fight against Devon Alexander last February where Maidana was exposed as not having the size for the welterweight division nor the speed.

Now, Maidana will be fighting an even bigger fighter in junior middleweight Jesus Soto-Karass (26-7-3, 17 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez’s fight against Josesito Lopez on September 15th on Showtime at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is a really tough fight for Maidana, because Soto-Karass is bigger than him and used to fighting bigger guys. Soto-Karass has a great chin and it’s highly unlikely that Maidana is going to be able to dent it with any of his big shots. Soto-Karass was stopped recently by Gabriel Rosado, but Rosado is a junior middleweight with power. He’s not a small light welterweight who could no longer make the division like Maidana. I kind of doubt that Maidana’s shots will have any affect on Soto-Karass, and that means he’s going to be in for a long night, because Soto-Karass in an all out brawler.

Maidana tends to fade in his fights when he’s forced to fight hard late into the fight. Soto-Karass won’t tire and he could end up beating Maidana by a decision if he doesn’t get stopped on cuts himself.

Soto-Karass hasn’t had much luck recently, losing a couple of times to Mike Jones and suffering the knockout loss to Rosado. However, Soto-Karass is a much better fighter than he showed in those fights and he does well against guys with Maidana’s fighting style. He does really well.

Maidana looks kind of flabby against Devon Alexander last February in his one-sided loss. Hopefully, Maidana has burned off that excess weight and can come into the bout a little more solid and ready for a long fight if need be.