Big News: Josh Taylor vs. Humberto Soto on March.3

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: In disappointing news in the boxing world, undefeated highly rated light welterweight Josh Taylor (11-0, 10 KOs) will be fighting 37-year-old Humberto ‘The Crafty Little Fox’ Soto (66-9-2, 36 KOs) on March 3 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.

Soto is a former 2 division world champion, but he’s been mostly inactive for the last 2 years of his career, fighting just 1 time since his 10 round unanimous decision loss to Antonio Orozco on October 3, 2015. Soto’s last fight was in October 2016, beating journeyman Jose Daniel Ruiz at junior middleweight. This is so sad. Taylor being wasted by being matched against old guys.

Soto’s record in the last 3 years is 1-1. Oh man, that is just terrible, and not he’s being picked out by Josh Taylor’s management to fight him on March 3. Well, if Taylor fails to pan out as a fighter in the future, you can blame it on all the weak opponents that have been fed to him by his promoters.

They’re supposed to be moving Taylor upwards by steadily matching him against better fighters in each fight instead of what they’re doing now, which appears to be a race to the bottom. It’s too bad. Taylor is not being matched against the right type of talent to improve his boxing skills, and increase his standing in the light welterweight division.

“I think it can be another equally successful year and hopefully put on the same type of performances and realise my dream of becoming world champion,” said Taylor to ESPN.com. “I believe I’m read to become world champion, ready to take on anyone that comes my way. There’s Mikey Garcia, Sergey Lipinets, Viktor Postol and Regis Prograis and I’m ready to take on any of them.”

When it’s all said and done and Taylor fails to ever win a world title, you can look at how he was matched in the early part of his career as a reason for that.

2012 Olympian Taylor has arguably beaten better fighters in the past than Humberto Soto. Taylor defeated Ohara Davies last year, and he’s a guy that would very likely destroy Soto if given the chance to fight him. This is a step down in competition for Taylor to be fighting the 40-ish Soto instead of a younger guy.

It makes you wonder if Taylor’s promoters are only looking to pad his record against older former world champions instead of putting him in with young guys that could actually improve his game.

This would have been a good fight for the 27-year-old Taylor, rated #5 WBC, #10 IF and #15 WBO, had it taken place 3 to 4 years ago when Soto was younger and still a major player at 140, but it’s not a great fight now. Soto hasn’t done much in his career since being obliterated by Lucas Matthysse 5 rounds in June 2012. Soto did beat John Molina Jr. by a 10 round unanimous decision in September 2014, but that was 3 ½ years ago, and it might as well have been a lifetime ago. Josh Taylor likely smash Humberto Soto the way that Matthysse did in 2012, because he’s not that kind of puncher.

Matthysse is a far bigger puncher than Taylor is. If anything, we’ll see Taylor try and use his size to beat Soto, and wind up looking bad like he did in his last fight against former IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vazquez last November. Taylor won that fight by a 9th round knockout, but he took a lot of shots from the crafty Vazquez. There were some moments in the fight where I wasn’t sure if Taylor would even win.

This was supposed to have been a showcase fight for Taylor in being matched against an over-the-hill former world champion, who doesn’t have the size to compete in the 140 lb. weight class. It didn’t turn out that way. Taylor looked bad, and not like a future world champion. He looked like a fringe contender struggling against a guy with better boxing skills than him. In the end, Taylor only won the fight based on his superior size and power, not because of his skills.

It goes without saying that if Vazquez was the same size as Taylor and had similar power, he would have won the fight with ease.

Taylor is now being matched against another old timer in Humberto Soto, and it’s disappointing to say the least that his management isn’t putting him in with better fighters that are relevant in the 140 lb. weight class. Soto is NOT relevant. He’s an inactive older fighter, who is lucky to be rated #15 by the World Boxing Council.

It’s unclear why Soto is ranked in the top 15 by the WBC, as he hasn’t fought in 15 months. I mean, the sanctioning body should have a cut-off point where they dump fighters that are inactive and resting on their laurels. I’m just saying. Soto hasn’t fought in ages, so he shouldn’t be ranked in the top 15 by the WBC. To me, Soto is a 2nd tier fighter that hasn’t had a real fight since 2014 when he beat high level journeyman John Molina.

It appears to me that Taylor’s promoters are protecting him by putting him in with soft jobs that have no chance against him. Taylor should be fighting the best at light welterweight like these guys:

• Jose Carlos Ramirez

• Regis Prograis

• Amir Imam

• Terry Flanagan

• Felix Diaz

• Adrien Broner

• Omar Figueroa

• Julius Indongo

• Kiryl Relikh

• Viktor Postol

• Rances Barthelemy

• Anthony Yigit

• Jason Pagara

• Eduard Troyanovsky

• Ivan Baranchyk

• Antonio Orozco

How about Josh Taylor being matched against one of those guys. Why isn’t he fighting those kind of talents instead of being fed older guys that have seen their prime disappear 2,500 yesterday’s ago.