By Dan Ambrose: If you’re excited about seeing Erislandy Lara take on fringe middleweight contender Ronald Hearns then you might like the news that the fight has moved from its previous spot on the January 21st undercard of the Paul Williams vs. Nobuhiro Ishida card to the February 11th undercard of the Andre Berto vs. Victor Ortiz II rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

No matter where the fight ends up, it’s a terrible mismatch as Lara is much too good for Hearns and it’s a forgone conclusion that Hearns is going to get knocked out or badly beaten up in this fight. I don’t think this mismatch adds any value to the Berto vs. Ortiz card.

The undercard also has unbeaten featherweight prospect Gary Russell Jr. (19-0, 11 KO’s) to be facing TBA in a 10 round bout. Russell, 23, really needs to start being matched against better opposition because it’s a waste of his time being matched up against journeyman and 3rd tier opposition like he’s been doing in the last two years. Russell isn’t a huge puncher but his opposition is so awful that he’s knocking everyone out and not learning a thing.

I’d see what happens when he finally is forced to fight someone not on life support. Russell doesn’t move his head or move much on his feet and he’s going to have big problems when he faces someone that can actually fight back.

Russell’s head is right there for shots and we’ll get to see if he can take it as well as dish it out. I think he’d be torn apart by guys like Orlando Salido and Juan Manuel Lopez. Those guys are technicians and don’t just get by on quick hands the way that Russell is.

Lara will destroy Hearns. Hopefully the fight goes more than three rounds so boxing fans can see some of Lara’s skills. He was robbed recently in his fight against Paul Williams. He won’t be robbed against Hearns because the fight won’t make it to the cards.