By Dan Ambrose: If you’re bored and want to see a couple of mismatches you might want to check out the January 21st doubleheader headlined by Paul Williams (40-2, 27 KO’s) vs. Nobuhiro Ishida (24-6-2, 9 KO’s) and Erislandy Lara (15-1, 10 KO’s) vs. Ronald Hearns (26-2, 20 KO’s) in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It’s hard to get excited about this card because Lara already gave Williams a terrible beating last July and was robbed of a decision when Williams got the win by a 12 round majority decision. Williams looked totally shot and it’s not particularly interesting to see him fighting right about now. He’s being matched against the 36-year-old Ishida, who’s claim to fame was knocking out a fat and rusty James Kirkland in the 1st round last April.

It’s not that big of a deal because Kirkland was in terrible shape and he just walked into Ishida’s fast shots. I don’t think Ishida could duplicate that effort in a millions years, and he certainly won’t be knocking Williams out. He doesn’t hit hard enough to that. Williams doesn’t have a steel chin as we saw in his 2nd round KO loss to Sergio Martinez but he can take a shot from a light puncher like Ishida.

Williams will win this fight because Ishida isn’t as good as he looked in the Kirkland fight. Ishida’s real talent level was shown in getting beaten by Saul Alvarez’s older brother Rigoberto Alvarez last year in October. Ishida lost a 12 round decision and deserved to lose.

Hearns-Lara fight is step backwards for the 28-year-old Lara. He needs to be challenging for a title already or at least taking on quality opposition. Hearns, a fringe contender, was stopped in the 7th round earlier this year by WBA middleweight champion Felix Sturm, who’s management selected Hearns from the bottom of the WBA pack instead of selecting a higher ranked contender. To say that they were cherry picking for weak opposition would be putting it mildly.

Lara will easily win this fight.