By Ryan Maquiñana
Junior welterweight contender Karim Mayfield still has titlist Khabib Allakhverdiev in his sights, but for now, his focus is on a possible Sept. 7 clash with veteran Pavel Miranda.
“We never look past anybody, but we do look through them,” Mayfield told BoxingScene.com/CSNBayArea.com last Saturday at local fighter Bruno Escalante's public workout. “I’m training like I’m getting ready to fight [Floyd] Mayweather. I never look past anybody regardless if he have losses or whatever, but with that being said, yeah, we’re going after [Allakhverdiev].”
The fight would take place on the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.–Brian Vera undercard, which is being slated for Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Mayfield (17-0-1, 10 KOs), from San Francisco, Calif., inked a multiyear deal with Top Rank in June after defeating Mauricio Herrera last October on HBO. Miranda (19-10-1, 9 KOs), from Tijuana, Mex., has lost six of seven but has gone the distance with Gabriel Bracero and almost shocked Jose Benavidez Jr. with a late knockdown.
If Mayfield wants to continue to build the type of buzz necessary for the bigger names in the division, he must capitalize on what appears to be a showcase fight against Miranda.
“[Top Rank is] one of the top promoters in the game and they have a good fleet of fighters around my weight class at 140 to 147 pounds, from Brandon Rios, [Juan Manuel] Marquez, [Tim] Bradley, [Manny] Pacquiao, [Ruslan] Provodnikov, just to name a few, and that’s a good roster to be able to aim for,” Mayfield said. “I’ve fought at 147 pounds for a majority of my career for the people that don’t know…For a big fight I’d definitely move up to 147 pounds.”
Eventually, Mayfield would like to secure a bout with WBA 140-pound “regular” titlist Khabib Allakherverdiev (19-0, 9 KOs), who also fights under the Top Rank banner and stopped Souleymane M’Baye last Saturday in Monaco.
“I see myself taking away what Khabib does best with a lot of pressure,” Mayfield said. “Obviously going backwards with a southpaw is not really ideal…I’ve been working on my pressure game, doing it to where I have good defense, but actually [be] more fan-friendly.
“I’ve been working with a lot of good, fast southpaws. We got my man Demetrius Andrade, and he’s a great southpaw, and I’ve been getting work in with guys like that, world-class guys, so that being said, these guys are definitely better than Khabib.”
Ryan Maquiñana was the boxing producer for NBCOlympics.com during London 2012 and writes a weekly column for CSNBayArea.com. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the Ratings Panel for Ring Magazine. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at Norcalboxing.net, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.
