Humberto Soto Considering Golden Boy, WBC Considering Another Belt at 140

by Scott Christ on Aug 8, 2011 7:50 PM EDT in Boxing News Analysis

Humberto Soto would consider signing with Golden Boy if it leads to a fight with Erik Morales. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Humberto Soto, currently a free agent, is considering signing a deal with Golden Boy Promotions if he could land a fight with fellow Mexican star Erik Morales.

Soto (56-7-2, 32 KO) is returning to the ring on September 3 against Jose Alfaro in Mexico, and it will be his official move to 140 pounds. He's already vacated his belt at 135, and though Alfaro is light years from being a legitimate contender, the WBC is said to be considering putting up an interim junior welterweight belt for the fight, which is once again just a boldly transparent move by the sanctioning body.

I guess you can make terrible sense of it if you try to. With the WBC's belt at 140 currently "vacant" and set to be decided on September 17 between Morales and Lucas Matthysse on the Mayweather vs Ortiz undercard, the WBC could argue that an interim belt makes sense to have in that 14 days before a new "champion" is crowned. Furthermore, they're still spinning that Timothy Bradley is "champion in recess," which is a nice way of saying they stripped him but they'd also like to take his money upon return should he want to, say, fight for one of their "Diamond" belts. It's tremendous all around.

Then there's still the issue of Ajose Olusegun and Ali Chebah, who have had a September 30 fight set for a while now, pre-dating the decision to strip Bradley and give Morales a clear road to a would-be historic fourth belt, a road that now has a big ass chunk of wood right in the middle named Lucas Matthysse after Jorge Barrios dropped out of the fight. Olusegun and Chebah are both highly-ranked by the WBC, and their fight was an eliminator, but it's still just an eliminator, and frankly likely an eliminator where the winner is going to have a horrible time actually getting a title shot, similar to what Selcuk Aydin has gone through at welterweight.

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I do think Olusegun and Chebah are both better than people give them credit for

Still fringe top 10 at the end of the day, but Olusegun isn’t that dissimilar from Theophane really, only even a bit more tricky, while Chebah can throw 100 punches a round and has good handspeed. There’s a reason major promoters have chased both of them lately.

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by Brickhaus on Aug 8, 2011 8:17 PM EDT reply actions

My hunch is Olusegun-Chebah turns into another one of those eliminators that doesn’t confer mandatory status on the winner (or in other words, one of those darned non-eliminator eliminators). I imagine Sulaiman will shortly declare that the WBC never said anything about this fight being an eliminator, much like he did with Rubio-Lemieux.

by bachwards on Aug 8, 2011 8:32 PM EDT reply actions

difference is

Aydin got a gift decision and paid for it by not being taken seriously, now he has a chance to redeem himself in a rematch vs jo jo dan
also chebah is good friends with el presidente im sure if he wins he will get a silver belt or a title shot, because don’t let his record fool you he’s not that big of a threat,.
In a fight that was supposed to showcase his skills and potencial he folded quickly against the mediocre handpicked reyes sanchez and don jose knows it, he was there in the front row

by ulises solis on Aug 9, 2011 5:06 AM EDT reply actions