Maidana vs. Soto-Karass: Marcos looking to show that he can compete at 147

By Boxing News - 08/27/2012 - Comments

Image: Maidana vs. Soto-Karass: Marcos looking to show that he can compete at 147By Allan Fox: Former WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s) is still convinced that he can make at welterweight after having been easily beaten by Devon Alexander in his first fight at 147 lbs last February.

Maidana had said afterwards that he would be moving back down in weight to 140 where his power is a lot more of an advantage for him than it is at 147. However, he’s decides to stick it out at 147 and will be fighting junior middleweight Jesus Soto-Karass (26-7-3, 17 KO’s) on September 15th on the undercard of the Saul Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Maidana said during a recent telephone conference call “On September 15th, I’m going to show that I can compete and I’m going to be a lot stronger and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable at 147. I can be just as strong.”

That remains to be seen whether Maidana can make it at this weight because he didn’t look at powerful as he once was in fighting at welterweight last February and he looked kind of flabby at this weight with fat hanging from the sides of his waist. The problem that Maidana has is that there are a lot of other fighter at 147 that can punch about as hard as he can but they have much better hand speed and boxing ability.

There’s nothing really special about Maidana at this weight other than the fact that he possibly could make for some exciting fights if he’s matched agaisnt the right opponent. Alexander was obviously the wrong opponent for him, and it’s surprising that Golden Boy Promotions, Maidana’s promoters, put that fight together because it was a bad match-up for Maidana the moment the fight was made.

Alexander is a that does a lot of clinching in his fights, and against Maidana all he had to do was increase his clinching to the level where he only had time enough to throw one of his own shots before grabbing Maidana to shut him down. Referee Steve Smoger didn’t stop Alexander from the constant clinching and that was basically it for Maidana. He was nullified.

The good news for Maidana is that Soto-Karass is a come forward type of fighter that doesn’t do a lot of clinching and prefers to slug. If Maidana can’t do well against this kind of style then he needs to think about moving back down in weight because it doesn’t get any better than this.



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