By William Mackay: If WBA light welterweight champion Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) wants to remain a viable fighter in the light welterweight division he’s going to have to beat challenger Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 KO’s) on August 27th in their fight at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. Maidana also needs a win over Guerrero to keep alive his dream of fighting Amir Khan again.

All it takes is one loss for Maidana and Khan will have all the excuses he needs to ignore Maidana forever. Just look at Breidis Prescott. Khan was knocked out by him in the 1st round in 2008, but routinely uses the excuse that Prescott has been beaten twice since their 2008 fight not to have to fight him.

The same will likely apply for Maidana if he gets beaten by Guerrero. Since Maidana really wants the Khan rematch, he’s got to do whatever he can to beat Guerrero in two weeks. That’s not going to be easy because Guerrero is likely going to be playing it safe for the most part by using his boxing skills to keep out of range of Maidana’s big shots. Maidana punches the hardest at mid-range.

In close, Maidana can still punch with a lot of power and a lot harder than Guerrero. This is where Maidana needs to take the fight. He’s got to crowd Guerrero and force him to fight the entire fight on the inside because he’ll get dominated on the outside. Guerrero can punch on the inside as well, but he’s not in the same class as Maidana. Guerrero also can’t handle body shots, and that’s where Maidana can potentially give him a lot of problems if he aims his punches to the midsection.