Maidana will have to slug his way to a victory over Lopez

By Boxing News - 06/06/2013 - Comments

1390By Allan Fox: Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 KO’s) has tried to change his fighting style by bringing in trainer Robert Garcia to make him more of a boxer instead of just a pure slugger, but unfortunately that didn’t help Maidana in either of his last two fights against Angel Martinez and Jesus Soto Karass.

In both of those fights, Maidana had to revert to the old slugging style to get the win and if he hadn’t done that he would have likely lost to Soto Karass.

On Saturday night, Maidana will be fighting Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KO’s) at the Home Depot Center, in Carson, California, USA.

Lopez may or may not choose to slug with Maidana. It’s difficult to say for sure what Lopez will do in this fight because he’s been a pure slugger for most of his career as well, but he doesn’t have the same kind of power that Maidana possesses. He can punch, but he’s not going to knock anyone out with one shot.

Where Maidana could be making a mistake on Saturday is if he tries to box with Lopez instead of slugging it out. Maidana won’t be able to beat Lopez in a boxing match because Lopez is lighter on his feet and he can move and he’s got a great jab. If Maidana tries to box instead of slug he’s going to have a hard time getting the victory in this fight.

Lopez lost his last fight against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last September. It wasn’t that Lopez didn’t have the skills to win. He looked good before he started getting hit hard, but the main problem was he didn’t have the size to compete against Canelo.

The weights weren’t that far apart, but Canelo was solid at that weight and a natural 154 pounder.

Maidana won’t have the same kind of power or size that Canelo had, so there’s not much chance that Lopez will get run over like he did against Canelo. Lopez can probably stand in there with Maidana without worrying about getting knocked out. Lopez was able to take Victor Ortiz’s best shots for 9 rounds and still stop him, and he can possibly do the same thing with Maidana.



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