Fernando Montiel goes in tough with Cermeno; Maidana set to invade Puerto Rico.......

The night of February 19th, 2011 was definitely a rough one for Los Mochis' proven warrior Fernando 'Kochulito' Montiel. Facing off with ultra talented Nonito Donaire inside of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada, the 32-year old was blown away inside of two rounds in scintillating and humbling fashion, surrendering his WBC and WBO bantamweight championship titles in the process.

Interestingly enough, Donaire has yet to capitalize on that career-high, having been caught up in a huge legal spat after attempting to break free of his binding contract with Top Rank Promotions by signing a lucrative deal with Golden Boy Promotions. Instead it is Montiel who is looking to wash the taste of that defeat away by not only returning to the ring promptly but also by moving up in weight and taking on the formidable challenge of former interim WBA bantamweight king and current super bantamweight contender Nehomar Cermeno.

Montiel meets the well-traveled Venezuelan on June 25th in Sinaloa, Mexico in what is shaping up as a doe-or-die fight for the former three-division champion. Asked for his assessment of the fight, you can hear the resilience coming from Montiel.

"I want to be big, so I am facing a former world champion. I want to re-occupy the position that I previously held and I want to fight for a fourth championship. I have prepared [for] everything and I will win this fight, but it is always best to do it by knockout, Montiel stated in a ***********.com piece by Rafael Soto.

Montiel's blowout to Donaire was simply crushing and you never know how a fighter will respond once they suffer a loss in that fashion. For him to move up in weight and taken on a capable opponent like Cermeno speaks of his courage and fortitude.

Marcos Maidana to train in Puerto Rico for Robert Guerrero bout

On August 27th Robert 'The Ghost' Guerrero will follow Montiel's blueprint by rising up in weight and facing off with interim WBA junior welterweight champion Marcos Maidana in San Jose, California on HBO's Boxing After Dark. The two men last saw time on the same card together on April 9th inside of the MGM Grand when Guerrero impressively routed Australia's Michael Katsidis over the course of twelve rounds while Maidana had to dig down deep to pull out a decision over come backing former champion Erik Morales.

It will be pretty fascinating to see how their styles play out, as the southpaw Guerrero has a refined attack and is comfortable fighting from a distance firing off sharp blows while Maidana is a straight-forward stalker with extreme power in both of his fists. If Maidana can keep the fight on the inside he should do well but it remains to be seen if Guerrero will let the fight play out in that fashion.

The two men actually spent the closing weeks of their last training camps under the same facility, the Pound 4 Pound Gym in Las Vegas, as they worked out at different times from one another. But this time around it looks like Team Maidana will be changing things up for a bit and heading to the beautiful island of Puerto Rico to prepare for the lanky Guerrero.

Maidana's advisor Sebastian Contursi had told me in the past that he had slight issues training in Las Vegas and recently revealed to me that Marcos and his team will be heading to Puerto Rico sometime next week to begin a rigorous eight-week camp. Maidana had been spending the last three weeks training in his native Buenos Aries in Argentina.


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