By Dan Ambrose: A fight between welterweight contenders #2 WBA, Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 KO’s) and #14 WBC, Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) is close for April 20th, according to Steve Kim. Stephen Espinoza of Showtime says the Maidana-Lopez is a real possibility for the April 20th date on Showtime, and Abner Mares is a possibility to fight on that date as well.
Lopez, 28, attracted attention last year in June when he stopped former IBF/WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz in the 9th round. Lopez moved up from light welterweight to take that fight, and not much was expected of him. However, he went toe-to-toe with Ortiz and got the better of him through much of the fight.
Eventually, he broke Ortiz’s jaw, forcing him to quit after the 9th round due to the incredible pain. Lopez’s success didn’t last long unfortunately, as he was lured into facing WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez at 154, and Lopez didn’t have the size to be competitive with Alvarez. Lopez put on size for the fight, but it was mostly fat and not muscle.
Maidana can potentially give Lopez the same kinds of problems that Saul Alvarez did due to his big punching power. Maidana can probably punch almost as hard as Canelo when he loads up on his shots. The thing is Maidana loads up on everything he throws, which is going to make this a really tough fight for Lopez because he was knocked down three times by Canelo.
If Canelo was able to do that to Lopez then the logical conclusion is Maidana will be able to do the same thing unless Lopez hits and runs. That’s not a style that I’ve ever seen Lopez use before, and I don’t expect him to start using it now.
Maidana has won his last two fights after being dominated by Devon Alexander last year in February in a one-sided loss. Alexander was able to clinch Maidana all night long, averaging 12 clinches per round to slow him down and prevent him from landing anything.