Humberto Soto said following his technical decision win last night against Motoki Sasaki that he's looking to move to junior welterweight, and is hoping to target the big names like Amir Khan, Erik Morales, Timothy Bradley and others.
Now I'm no big city lawyer, and yes I'm about to make this not so "news-y," but if I know my Humberto Soto history, he'll move to 140 pounds. He'll talk about fighting the top fighters. And instead he'll look to pick up a fairly easy belt. And then he'll defend it largely against overmatched competition who have no business in there and veteran mediocrities.
I could see Soto fighting someone like Julio Diaz, Joel Casamayor, or Nate Campbell. He makes money in Mexico, and has no U.S. promotional deal. He's just not an ambitious fighter. He's talented, yes, but he's not exactly leaping out of his trunks to grab the brass ring. I know I said late last year I'd hold off on raking Soto over the coals for the schedule he keeps after he took home that great win over Urbano Antillon, but this year all he's done is duck out of the scheduled rematch with Antillon, fought Fidel Monterossa again, and then the faded Sasaki. He's kind of like the Mexican Felix Sturm to me -- I think he's a really good fighter who generally speaking does not live up to his own talent by taking good fights. It's a shame, because he's not only talented, but generally enjoyable to watch fight.
If you're wondering about where Soto fits into the chase to become the first Mexican to win titles in four weight classes, he's only at two, not three, as his featherweight belt was an interim. That's the same reason Jorge Arce is still legitimately stuck on three no matter what anyone says, because Arce's flyweight title was an interim belt, even though he defended it multiple times.