By Jason Kim: World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion Timothy Bradley (25-0, 11 KO’s) knows what he’s up against in his next fight against Argentinean knockout artist Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO’s) when they face each other on June 19th at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. In an article at Mydesert, the 26-year-old Bradley says “It’s a typical fight between a boxer vs. puncher. I’m not a huge puncher, so he [Maidana] can either be out-boxed or I could get knocked out. I don’t think he fights technically at all. He comes with a game plan, but that’s just to break you down and then knock you out. He’s like, ‘I can take your punchers, but can you take mine?”

That pretty much sums Maidana up completely. He’s not going to be a fighter that will try to box with Bradley. Maidana will instead be pure business, as he single-mindedly goes after Bradley and tries to tear him apart all night long. Maidana clearly isn’t a technical boxer, and instead likes to go after his opponents with huge punches with unrelenting pressure. Maidana, unlike other fighters, loads up on everything he throws but does it without tiring out.

It doesn’t matter to him if he misses a lot of his shots. He continues to throw with a lot of power with every shot and hurts whatever he hits. In his last fight, he walked through a lot of big shots from Victor Cayo to take him out in the 6th round, in a fight that was televised by HBO on March 27th. In the past year alone, Maidana has destroyed two top fighters with knockout wins over Victor Ortiz, and Cayo.

The win over Ortiz was especially impressive, because many boxing experts felt that Ortiz was destined to be a world champion. Maidana got up off the deck three times to score to knockdowns and an eventual 6th round stoppage win over Ortiz. Some people say that Ortiz made the mistake of fighting Maidana’s fight, saying that’s why he lost. However, in looking at the fight recently, Ortiz had little choice but to fight Maidana all out because Maidana expertly cut off the ring on Ortiz and forced him to fight. Maidana’s power shots were too big for Ortiz just to cover up against. He had to fight because there was little other choice.

Gary Shaw, the promoter of Bradley, says this about the Bradley-Maidana fight: “This could probably go down as the best fight of the year in any weight class. It’s a fight fans can’t wait to see. It’s just a huge fight coming early in Tim’s career. The benefactors obviously are the fans and all of boxing, specially the fans around here who can come to the Agua Caliete to watch Timmy.” Shaw was previously going to match Bradley against a welterweight contender Luis Carlos Abregu. However, an HBO executive suggested that Maidana might be a good alternative. The rest is history.

Maidana will be an excellent choice for Bradley, because of his big power and pressure. Maidana, the World Boxing Association light welterweight interim champion, is hoping to get a fight with the full WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan next year in 2011, as long as Maidana can keep winning.