Humberto Soto back in play for Khan’s April 20th fight

By Boxing News - 02/06/2013 - Comments

soto21421By Scott Gilfoid: Former two division world champion Humberto Soto (59-8-2, 34 KO’s) is back in the picture for Amir Khan’s next fight on April 20th if Soto gets by his scheduled opponent journeyman Silverio Ortiz (26-13, 12 KO’s) this Saturday night in their fight for the vacant WBC Silver light welterweight title at the Arena Itson, Ciudad Obregon, in Sonora, Mexico.

If Soto wins that fight and doesn’t get cut up, and if Showtime says yes to the Khan-Soto mismatch, then the fight will likely go ahead for April 20th.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says the 32-yard-old Soto is the leading candidate to get the fight with Khan after former WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko said no to the strength draining catch-weight that was being asked of him to take the fight with Khan. Senchenko wasn’t willing to drain himself to take the fight.

Schaefer said to RingTV “There is a possibility that it [Khan’s next opponent] could be former world champion Humberto Soto…we’ll discuss it with Showtime.”

I’m sorry but I don’t like this fight at all, but then again I have an advantage over boxing fans that didn’t see how truly awful Soto looked in his loss to Lucas Matthysse last June because I saw the fight, and Soto looked like an old and shot fighter, in the wrong weight division, and against the wrong opponent. Now Khan isn’t in the same class as Matthysse in terms of punching power or talent, but he’s still better than Soto, and he’s a natural welterweight.

I don’t know what it is with Golden Boy Promotions but I’m really disappointed in their match-making for their fighters recently. We just saw Matthysse matched against a guy out of his league in Mike Dallas Jr., and a little over a week from how we’re seeing Gavin Rees looking like the sacrificial lamb for Golden Boy fighter WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner to slaughter.

We saw Khan matched against an unranked lightweight in Carlos Molina in his last fight, and now it looks like it’s going to be Soto. That’s sad, sad match-making if you ask me. Golden Boy wanted to put WBA welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi in with a shot Shane Mosley, and thankfully that fight won’t be taking place.



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