By Jason Kim: #3 WBC Selcuk Aydin (23-1, 17 KO’s) will be trying to show improvement in his career this Saturday night against Jesus Soto-Karass (26-8-3, 17 KO’s) in a 10 round bout at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Aydin, 29, lost his last fight to Robert Guerrero last July in a 12 round unanimous decision loss and in doing so, Aydin lost his unbeaten record and his #1 ranking by the WBC in the welterweight division.
It was somewhat disappointing for Aydin because he had been passed over for ages by former WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, and it seemed kind of sad to see Aydin beaten before getting a title shot. The only consolation was that his fight with Guerrero was for the interim WBC 147 pound title, but that’s a much different thing that fighting for a title.
Aydin is now trained by Adam Booth, a British trainer known for training David Haye and George Groves. Aydin has a lot of work to do on his technique because he looked very primitive in his loss to Guerrero. The power was fine, but Aydin didn’t throw jabs and rarely threw combinations, and his work rate was poor.
As good as Booth is as a trainer, it’s going to be tough for him to be able to make major changes to the 29-year-old Aydin’s game because he’s not a young kid anymore, and his work rate, or lack thereof, will likely continue to be a problem for him in his future fights.
Soto-Karass, 30, will be moving down from junior middleweight for this fight, and there’s a possibility he could be weaker after he strips off the weight to make the 147 pound limit.
Soto-Karrass’ career has really gone downhill since 2009 when he started facing better opposition. He’s lost to Alfonso Gomez, Mike Jones [Twice], Gabriel Rosado and Marcos Maidana in the past four years. Basically, Soto-Karass has lost each time he’s stepped up to fight better opposition. Whether he has the same problem against Aydin is unclear.
Soto-Karass looked pretty good against Maidana last September and I had him beating Maidana for the first six rounds. Soto-Karass was really punishing Maidana and beating him at his own game in a toe-to-toe war. However, Maidana took over the fight in the 7th when he knocked Soto-Karass down and then he finished him off in the 8th.
I would give Soto-Karass a good chance of beating Aydin if the fight was held at 154, but I think the weight loss will hurt Soto-Karass and lead to him losing the fight. I do think he’s going to give Aydin a lot of problems before the fight is over.