September 13 Mayweather-Maidana 2 undercard fights rated: Could one steal the show

By Gavin Duthie - 09/11/2014 - Comments

angulo554By Gav Duthie: Mayweather and Golden Boy promotions have decided not to opt for chief undercard support this Saturday like they did with Amir Khan v Collazo but the undercard is shaping up nicely. There are some fairly competitive fights and titles on the line. Here we rate the fights and speculate if any might outshine the main event. 

Humberto Soto 64-8-2 (35) v John Molina 27-4 (22)
Fight Rating: 9/10
Fight Type: All action

This has the potential to be the fight of the night. I love fighters like John Molina. Will he ever become a world champion, probably not but it doesn’t matter. He always entertains and always gives us good fights. He’s a Mickey Ward, Arturo Gatti type throwback who will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final bell. He might feel a little hard done by on Saturday as he watches  Mickey Bey fight for a world title after he amazingly stopped him in round 10 for his only loss to date. Soto is a two weight world champion at Super Featherweight and Lightweight and will be happy to trade with Molina. Both fighters share a loss against Lucas Matthyse but Soto is definitely finding his feet at Light Welterweight with 6 straight wins since the loss to the Argentine. 

Molina TKO 8

Miguel Vasquez 34-3 (13) v Mickey Bey 20-1-1 (10)
Fight Rating: 8/10
Fight Type: Chess Match

When I seen this as a defence I thought it was just a way to get a Mayweather Promotions fighter on the card and for Vasquez to get some exposure. However, the closer it comes to fight night I get more interested. Mickey doesn’t have any big wins, nor a big punch in fact his only top fight against John Molina he gets knocked out. If you are to watch the Molina fight back Mickey is extremely dominant from round 1 until the last minute of the fight when Molina knocks him out. If Bey has learned from that experience he has a chance. I do feel that Vasquez has such an awkward style and attributes that he should win but Bey will give it his all. The jab will be the key to this fight. 

Vasquez UD 12

Alfredo Angulo 22-4 (18) v James De La Rosa 22-2 (13)
Fight Rating: 7/10
Fight Type: Brawl

I put Angulo in a similar bracket as Molina. He is a big punch, all action fighter with only one way to win. In fact he has less skill than Molina but he can certainly knock you out. De La Rosa has lost two fights, both by decisions, at a relatively average level but this is a step up in weight for Angulo. De La Rosa survived the power of former record breaking knockout artist Tyron Brunson before winning an 8 rounder, his best victory to date. Both fighters are fairly durable and this should be fought at a high tempo. 

Angulo UD 10

Leo Santa Cruz 27-0-1 (15) v Manuel Roman 17-2-3 (6)
Fight Rating: 5/10
Fight Type: Massacre

Not much to say on this one really. I’m not sure why this has been commissioned as a world title fight as Roman has absolutely no chance. The Super Bantamweight division is one of the best in boxing just now. The problem seems to be that nobody wants to risk a loss until the big guys fight each other. Rigondaeux, Quigg and now Santa Cruz have/are all making defences against average opponents but we will hopefully some unification fights soon. 

Santa Cruz KO 4

All in all it should be a great night of boxing but I still think the headline fight will take centre stage. Maidana will do everything he can to push Floyd to the max and without the fear of fighting the pound or pound number 1this should be a great fight. 

Mayweather UD 12



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