By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Robert Guerrero (29-1-1, 18 Ko’s) has signed a contract to face World Boxing Association (WBA) light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (30-2, 27 KO’s) for a fight that will be taking place on August 27th in the 28-year-old Guerrero’s nearby city of San Jose, California. Guerrero will be moving up in weight from lightweight to make this challenge, which will be Guerrero’s third world title if he’s successful.

Maidana, 27, still has to sign the contract but he’s expected to do so shortly. This is a somewhat surprising fight for Maidana, as he’s fighting in Guerrero’s home city even though Maidana is probably the better known and the more popular fighter of the two. It’s going to be asking a lot of Maidana to win a decision fighting against a skilled boxer like Guerrero in his home city. All I can say is Maidana must have been offered a good payday for him to make this fight, because he could have taken a safer fight against an arguably easier target in Paul McCloskey, a fighter who badly wants to take on Maidana.

Maidana won his last fight against Erik Morales, winning by a 12 round majority decision on April 9th. However, Maidana didn’t look impressive in that fight, as he lacked hand speed and his stamina was a little shaky to say the least. In his fight before that, Maidana lost a close 12 round decision to WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan last December in a fight of the year bout.

Guerrero hasn’t lost a fight in six years since losing to Gamaliel Diaz in 2005. However, Guerrero met his match against Orlando Salido in 2006, losing by a clear 12 round decision. Salido tested positive for steroids after the fight and the result was changed to a non contest. But all the same, Guerrero looked out of his class against Salido and it’s hard to see him beating Salido now. Since the Salido fight, Guerrero has had pretty much smooth sailing with the exception of his fight against Daud Cino Yordan in 2009. Their fight ended early in the 2nd round due to Guerrero suffering a cut from a head clash. But he looked uncomfortable with Yordan’s power and fighting style before the cut occurred and it would have been interesting to see if Guerrero would have won the fight.

If Maidana can take the fight to Guerrero the same way that Salido and Yordan did then he could make things very difficult for Guerrero. He hasn’t been in with a two-handed puncher like Maidana before and it’s going to be a tough fight for Guerrero even if he does win. He’s going to take a lot heavy shots against Maidana, there’s no getting away from that.