This Saturday Night: Marcos Maidana vs Josesito Lopez and Chad Dawson vs Adonis Stevenson

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Josesito Lopez (30-5) had a memorable year in 2012. As a replacement after Andre Berto got popped by VADA, Lopez stepped in to fight Victor Ortiz on late notice last Summer. He made the most of his opportunity, physically and mentally breaking Ortiz as the exciting fight rolled on. In the 9th round, Lopez landed a big shot that fractured Ortiz’s jaw; the fight was stopped in the corner after the round came to an end.

With Ortiz out-of-the-way, Lopez would go on to become Canelo Alvarez’s opponent for September 15th. While tougher than a Hohner and trying his best, the undersized and outgunned Lopez just couldn’t handle what Alvarez was dishing out. His best success was landing some solid combinations at times, but they were having little to no effect on Alvarez. The smaller Lopez was just getting smashed by the red-headed Mexican superstar. The fight was called off at 2:55 of the fifth round when the official had seen enough.

On that same show, Marcos Maidana (33-3) had a heck of fight against Jesus Soto Karass. Nasty and grueling, the fight came to an end via TKO in the eighth round. Three months later, Maidana took on Angel Martinez, which is my brother’s name. Or my brother’s tocayo (namesake). Anyways, Maidana started by walking down Martinez. Calm and measured, Maidana was picking his shots before settling into to throwing bombs. At 1:21 of the third frame, Maidana hit a body shot KO that would make any man crumble.

On paper, tomorrow night’s Showtime fight (9:00 PM) between the two has the potential of being one of the most exciting fights of 2013. At this point of the año, the fights in my FOTYC ballot include Bradley vs Provodnikov, Rios vs Alvarado II, and Froch vs Kessler. I’m hoping that these two create a fight good enough that it will make a case to be on my list.

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Also on Saturday night and at the same time as the Showtime event, HBO will be offering a fight between WBC and The Ring light-heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson (31-2) and Adonis Stevenson (20-1). Dawson had that terribly boring win over Bernard Hopkins last year in April. He returned to get destroyed by pound-for-pound great Andre Ward at super-middleweight in September. This will be his first fight since then and he is back to competing at his weightclass (light-heavyweight). Let’s hope Dawson isn’t too conservative in there.