Marcos Maidana vs. Josesito Lopez on April 20th

By Boxing News - 02/25/2013 - Comments

lopez43By Dan Ambrose: Welterweight contender Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 KO’s) is confirming that he’ll be fighting next against Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) on April 20th at a still to be determined venue. Maidana, 29, needs this fight to keep in the running for bigger money fights in the future, one of which could be against WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Maidana has won his last two fights against Angel Martinez and Jesus Soto-Karass in 2012 after having been beaten by Devon Alexander by a 10 round unanimous decision in February of last year. Maidana, now training with Robert Garcia, is becoming more of a boxer/puncher rather than just a pure slugger that he’s been known for being in the past.

He’s trying to get out of the way of shots now by moving his head and fighting in an in and out manner. Maidana is also using his jab much more now than he ever did in the past.

Lopez, 28, was recently negotiating with Golden Boy for a fight against former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan for a fight that would have taken place in April. However, Khan wanted Lopez to boil down to fight him at a catchweight, but Lopez chose not to do that.

Lopez lost his last fight to WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last year in September in a 5th round TKO defeat. Lopez was knocked down in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds by the younger, stronger and fresher Canelo. In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea for Lopez to take the fight in the first place given that he had fought a grueling battle against former WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz just three months earlier in June.

Going from that fight to a tough battle against Canelo with just three months separating the fights was foolish thing for Lopez to do, but the payday obviously was too good for him to say no to it.

Maidana has a big power advantage in this fight, and Lopez is going to have to curb his habit of mixing it up if he wants to win this fight. Lopez won’t be winning a lot of exchanges with Maidana like he did against Ortiz because Maidana won’t back off like Ortiz did. He’ll keep coming forward and forcing Lopez to brawl and that’s not a fight that Lopez can win.



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