Maidana-Soto Karass could overshadow Alvarez vs. Lopez

By Boxing News - 08/12/2012 - Comments

Image: Maidana-Soto Karass could overshadow Alvarez vs. LopezBy Dan Ambrose: The September 15th match-up between welterweight Marcos Maidana (31-3, 28 KO’s) and junior middleweight Jesus Soto-Karass (26-7-3, 17 KO’s) could overshadow the main event on the Showtime televised fight card between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight card also has a bout between WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez and challenger Daniel Ponce De Leon, but I have a strong feeling that the Maidana vs. Soto-Karass could steal the show from the Alvarez-Lopez and Gonzalez-Ponce De Leon fight.

Maidana has been one of HBO’s most exciting fighters for the past three years, and it doesn’t matter that Maidana loses from time to time, he’s become like another Arturo Gatti-type of fighter for the network. Soto-Karass, 29, has also been known for being involved in some exciting fights in the past against the likes of Mike Jones, Alfonso Gomez, and Edvan Dos Santos Barros.

Soto-Karass has had limited luck as of late, however, with losses to Gomez, Jones and Gabriel Rosado. In those fights, Soto-Karass got caught in wars and and he was unable to win them because he didn’t have the power needed to get past them. However, he fought well and was competitive. In thought Soto-Karass fought well enough to deserve a decision win in his first fight with Mike Jones in November 2010. However, in their second fight in February 2011, Jones was able to out-box Soto-Karass using movement to keep from getting hit as much.

Soto-Karass does well against guys that don’t move much and who go straight forward trying to slug the way that Maidana does. That’s a style that Soto-Karass is very familiar with and if he can somehow handle Maidana’s big power shots, he could pull off a minor upset in this one. Being the bigger fighter will definitely help Soto-Karass, because Maidana only recently moved up to welterweight last February and he’s coming off a schooling by Devon Alexander in that fight. This gives Soto-Karass a good blueprint to use in order to beat Maidana if he can slow the fight down by clinching him as often as Alexander did.



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