Della Rosa-Lara winner to be Canelo’s mandatory challenger

By Boxing News - 02/10/2013 - Comments

lara212By Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Council has replaced Vanes Martirosyan with #3 WBC Emanuele Della Rosa (31-1, 8 KO’s) to face #1 WBC Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO’s) in WBC 154 pound eliminator bout with the winner becoming the mandatory challenger for WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Martirosyan already fought Lara last November, but the fight ended in the 9th round when Martirosyan was badly cut from a head-butt over his left eye. The right was then ruled a 9th round technical draw. Lara and Martirosyan were supposed to fight again so a mandatory could be determined from that bout, but Martirosyan failed to take the fight.

This makes Lara’s job a lot easier because the 32-year-old Della Rosa is a big step down from Martirosyan in talent and power, and this could be a huge mismatch. Della Rosa, from Italy, has fought only one quality opponent during his eight year pro career when he faced and lost to then WBC interim middleweight champion Sebastian Zbik by a 12 round decision four years ago in Germany. Della Rosa fought well in that fight, but not well enough to get the win.

The winner of the Della Rosa vs. Lara fight will likely have to wait until 2014 to get their shot at the WBC title because Canelo will probably be facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September. There’s also a chance that the Della Rosa-Lara winner won’t even be facing Canelo at all.

If Canelo loses his WBC title to Trout in May, then it will be Trout that the winner of the Lara vs. Della Rosa fight will be facing, and I’m sure that’s not what either of them have in mind because the money will be likely a lot less in facing Trout in a non-pay per view bout than it would be in facing the much more popular PPV star Canelo.



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