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Marcos Maidana, poised to relinquish his junior welterweight title, will take his second consecutive welterweight bout when he meets Jesus Soto Karass on Sept. 15, manager Sebastian Contursi told ESPN.com on Monday.
Contursi said Maidana signed the contract on Saturday in Las Vegas and that the fight will be part of a Showtime-televised quadrupleheader headlined by junior middleweight titleholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez's defense against Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand.
Maidana (31-3, 28 KOs), 28, of Argentina, was originally supposed to face prospect Keith Thurman on HBO on Saturday night. Contursi said the deal was never finalized and they decided not to face the unknown Thurman, opting to wait to see what else promoter Golden Boy had to offer.
Maidana is coming off a near-shutout 10-round decision loss to Devon Alexander in February. For that fight, Maidana and Alexander, a former junior welterweight titleholder, were both moving up in weight. Alexander was moving up for good, but Maidana said afterward that he intended to return to 140 pounds to continue defending his belt.
However, Contursi said Maidana was having too much difficulty making the weight, so they have decided he will remain at welterweight and vacate his title.
"Well, Maidana is definitely not making 140 pounds anymore," Contursi said. "He is just too big for it now after years of making the 140 limit. That's why we decided to give it a shot at 147 pounds and thought that Jesus Soto Karass is a very good opponent since he just fights. Could be a war.
"Golden Boy Promotions thought that adding Maidana to the Sept. 15 card would improve it, so they offered us that fight and we took it. This time Maidana would have proper time to adjust and to improve under (new trainer) Robert Garcia."
Contursi said Maidana would formally notify the WBA of his intentions to vacate his belt in the coming days.
"We speculated until now about keeping the title but we will give it up," Contursi said.
In Soto Karass (26-7-3, 17 KOs), Maidana will be facing a longtime fringe contender who has made several television appearances and been in action fights. Soto Karass, 29, of Mexico, has won two bouts in a row since a three-fight losing streak that included two decisions to Mike Jones (including a majority decision in their controversial first fight) and a fifth-round knockout loss to Gabriel Rosado. That is the only time Soto Karass has ever been stopped.
In the main event, Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs), one of Mexico's biggest stars, will make his fifth title defense against Lopez (30-4, 18 KOs) on Mexican Independence Day weekend. Lopez scored a major upset on June 23 when he stopped former welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz in the ninth round. Lopez will be moving up another weight class after having risen from junior welterweight to welterweight to face Ortiz at a career-heavy 144 pounds.
In the co-feature, featherweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez (52-7, 45 KOs) will face former junior featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon (43-4, 35 KOs) in an all-Mexican fight. The fourth fight of the broadcast has not yet been announced.
The card will go head-to-head with the Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. middleweight championship fight, one of the year's biggest bouts. It is also taking place in Las Vegas (at the Thomas & Mack Center) and is being put on by Showtime rival HBO PPV and promoted by Golden Boy rival Top Rank.
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id...us-soto-karass
Contursi said Maidana signed the contract on Saturday in Las Vegas and that the fight will be part of a Showtime-televised quadrupleheader headlined by junior middleweight titleholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez's defense against Josesito Lopez at the MGM Grand.
Maidana (31-3, 28 KOs), 28, of Argentina, was originally supposed to face prospect Keith Thurman on HBO on Saturday night. Contursi said the deal was never finalized and they decided not to face the unknown Thurman, opting to wait to see what else promoter Golden Boy had to offer.
Maidana is coming off a near-shutout 10-round decision loss to Devon Alexander in February. For that fight, Maidana and Alexander, a former junior welterweight titleholder, were both moving up in weight. Alexander was moving up for good, but Maidana said afterward that he intended to return to 140 pounds to continue defending his belt.
However, Contursi said Maidana was having too much difficulty making the weight, so they have decided he will remain at welterweight and vacate his title.
"Well, Maidana is definitely not making 140 pounds anymore," Contursi said. "He is just too big for it now after years of making the 140 limit. That's why we decided to give it a shot at 147 pounds and thought that Jesus Soto Karass is a very good opponent since he just fights. Could be a war.
"Golden Boy Promotions thought that adding Maidana to the Sept. 15 card would improve it, so they offered us that fight and we took it. This time Maidana would have proper time to adjust and to improve under (new trainer) Robert Garcia."
Contursi said Maidana would formally notify the WBA of his intentions to vacate his belt in the coming days.
"We speculated until now about keeping the title but we will give it up," Contursi said.
In Soto Karass (26-7-3, 17 KOs), Maidana will be facing a longtime fringe contender who has made several television appearances and been in action fights. Soto Karass, 29, of Mexico, has won two bouts in a row since a three-fight losing streak that included two decisions to Mike Jones (including a majority decision in their controversial first fight) and a fifth-round knockout loss to Gabriel Rosado. That is the only time Soto Karass has ever been stopped.
In the main event, Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs), one of Mexico's biggest stars, will make his fifth title defense against Lopez (30-4, 18 KOs) on Mexican Independence Day weekend. Lopez scored a major upset on June 23 when he stopped former welterweight titlist Victor Ortiz in the ninth round. Lopez will be moving up another weight class after having risen from junior welterweight to welterweight to face Ortiz at a career-heavy 144 pounds.
In the co-feature, featherweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez (52-7, 45 KOs) will face former junior featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon (43-4, 35 KOs) in an all-Mexican fight. The fourth fight of the broadcast has not yet been announced.
The card will go head-to-head with the Sergio Martinez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. middleweight championship fight, one of the year's biggest bouts. It is also taking place in Las Vegas (at the Thomas & Mack Center) and is being put on by Showtime rival HBO PPV and promoted by Golden Boy rival Top Rank.
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id...us-soto-karass
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