By Ian S Palmer
Selcuk Aydin faces a tough test at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on Sat. Jan 26 when he meets Jesus Soto Karass in a 10-round welterweight bout. Aydin of Turkey climbs into the ring with a record of 23-1 with 17 Kos while Mexico’s Soto Karass carries a 26-8-3 record with him along with 17 Kos. Aydin goes by the nickname of Mini-Tyson, but he lost his last bout by a close unanimous decision to Robert Guerrero, the WBC’s interim champion.
The 29-year-old Aydin, who now fights out of Germany, isn’t really well known on the world boxing scene, but he’s quite aggressive and has good hand speed. He likes to fight on the inside and possesses decent power. His biggest problem though is his lack of activity. He simply didn’t throw enough punches against Guerrero to pull off a win. It was a big mistake as he’s accurate with his shots and lands at a high per cent when he does throw them. Aydin would be a lot more effective if he pressed the action more and let his hands fly.
The 30-year-old Soto Karass is a 12-year veteran boxer who hit a rough patch recently. He dropped four straight fights before rebounding with a couple of wins last year and fought well against former world champion Marcos Maidana in September even though he was knocked out in the eighth round. He’s an exciting fighter who doesn’t mind getting nailed with a couple of shots to land one of his own. Soto Karass has fought a lot of good opponents over the years including Yuri Foreman, Freddy Hernandez, Mike Jones,Gabriel Rosado, and Vince Phillips.
Soto Karass is probably a B grade boxer who gives it his all in the ring, but Aydin is just a class above him in the skill department and that’s going to make this a tough fight for him. Aydin will need to throw more punches than usual to keep Soto Karass off of him, but he doesn’t really want to get involved in a slugfest. However, that could eventually happen since the Turk will go toe-to-toe if he has to and has the power to back it up.
Soto Karass claims that he’ll box if need be and is prepared to adjust to Aydin’s awkward style. However, there’s a good chance any boxing strategy won’t last too long and we’ll see the Mexican try to entice Aydin into a brawl, which would be his best chance of winning.
Prediction
This is a good matchup and it will let Soto Karass know exactly where he currently stands in his boxing career. He can’t really afford another loss if he wants to be considered a serious contender. He’ll need to be at his very best to beat Aydin, but I think somewhere along the line he’ll run into one of Aydin’s power shots and will be stopped.
