Earlier today inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, the participants for this weekend’s ‘Action Heroes’ event worked out for the media days ahead of their fights on Saturday night.
The event is headlined by Argentina’s Marcos Maidana squaring offer with former three-division champion Erik Morales and also features Michael Katsidis vs. Robert Guerrero, Paulie Malignaggi vs. Jose Miguel Cotto, and James Kirkland vs. Nobuhiro Ishida in televised attractions. While the Katsidis-Guerrero contest and the Malignaggi-Cotto meeting figure to be competitive, Kirkland and Maidana appear to be in showcase bouts meant to build them for something greater down the road.
<--- Slideshow: Marcos Maidana, James Kirkland, Paulie Malignaggi, Jose Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero, Erik Morales and Michael Katsidis at the MGM Grand
This is Malignaggi’s first fight with notable exposure since signing with Golden Boy Promotions. The flamboyant former IBF junior welterweight champion’s training camp was held at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles and Cotto will likely make for a solid test in Paulie’s second fight at 147 pounds.
Kirkland is a ball of fire and this marks his third fight in the past month. The 27-year old was taking the sport by storm in 2009 until he was caught with firearms and later sent him to prison for twelve months. Now teamed up with trainer Kenny Adams in Las Vegas, Kirkland appears to have a different kind of focus about him and is slowly working his way back down to 154 pounds.
At the end of the night everybody is expecting Maidana to have his hands raised and for good reason. He is one of the most exciting and powerful fighters at 140 pounds and he left such an impression in his last fight, a close decision loss to Amir Khan last December, that his stock didn’t take a hit at all.
The junior welterweight class is one of the hottest in the sport and Maidana will position himself for a big fight if successful Saturday night.
