By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten welterweight contender Mike Jones (22-0, 18 KO’s) faces fellow Top Rank contender Jesus Soto Karass (24-4-3, 16 KO’s) in as scheduled 10 round bout next month on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao – Antonio Margarito bout at the Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

Jones, 27, will be defending his obscure WBO NABO welterweight title and trying to look good in the process. I don’t see either of these welterweights as being top five or even top six in the division. Jones has the inflated ranking of #2 WBA, #2 WBO, #4 WBC and #4 IBF.

Presumably, Jones has received this inflated ranking from beating Irving Garcia, Hector Munoz and Henry Bruseles. I don’t see wins over those guys as being something that should have Jones even put in the 10. He looks mediocre and muscle bound, like he needs to take stretching classes and stop lifting weights.

The hand speed isn’t there and he lacks flexibility. However, I think Jones is good enough to beat Karass, a limited slugger. Karass likes to slug but he doesn’t have much power. He’s already been beaten by Alfonso Gomez, Yuri Foreman, Freddy Hernandez and Nurhan Suleymanoglu in the past.

I expect Jones to beat Karass as well, unless Jones’ lack of flexibility causes him to get beaten up. I haven’t been at all impressed with Jones. He really needs to take off 10 to 15 pounds of useless muscle and work his flexibility and move down in weight. I can’t see him beating any of the welterweight champions unless he improves and I haven’t seen any improvement from him.