Humberto Soto vs. Jose Lopez on Saturday

By Boxing News - 11/08/2012 - Comments

Image: Humberto Soto vs. Jose Lopez on SaturdayBy Allan Fox: Former WBC lightweight champion Humbero Soto (58-8-2, 34 KO’s) will be moving up to welterweight to take on 21-year-old World Boxing Federation welterweight champion Jose Lopez (17-2-1, 10 KO’s) in a fight at the Estadio Morelos, Ecatepec, México, Mexico.

It’s an unusual move for the 32-year-old Soto, because he looked undersized in his fight last fight against light welterweight Lucas Matthysse last June. Soto was totally dominated by Mattysse and taken out in the 5th round.

Soto just looked like he didn’t belong at 140 in that fight and it was thought that he would get a clue and move back down to lightweight where he was a dominant force. But it looks like Soto is interested in going after the bigger money fights by moving up to 147. He’s picked the right guy to get a quick win because the 21-year-old Lopez has lost two out of his last five fights, losing to Viktor Postol and Jhonny Navarrete. Soto should be able to win this fight if the size factor doesn’t do him in like it did in his last fight.

Soto held the World Boxing Council lightweight strap from 2010 until voluntarily giving it up in 2011 in order to move up to light welterweight to make a go of it in that class. Soto would likely still have the WBC title today if he had stayed at 135, but he opted instead to go up in weight. In moving up in weight Soto missed out on a good title defense against the young Antonio DeMarco. That would have been an excellent fight for Soto, and it’s unfortunate that he missed out on that.

At 5’7″ without a lot of speed or power, it’s unclear how far Soto can go at 147. There are too many fighters with better size, power and youth compared to Soto. He’s really at a disadvantage at this weight, but I guess he must be hoping that he gets a title shot due to his recognizable name. However, if he’s thinking that he’ll get picked out by the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao then he’s kidding himself because those guys will likely never fight him. There’s no reason to because he doesn’t have a large fan base in the United States.



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