By Dan Ambrose: WBA interim junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (18-1-2, 12 KO’s) already has his sights set on the next fight he wants after his impressive 10th round beat down of Alfredo Angulo last Saturday night in Carson, California. Lara says he wants to fight former three division world champion Miguel Cotto (37-4, 30 KO’s) next.
Lara told boxing Publicist “I want Miguel Cotto next.”
Unfortunately, getting a fight with Cotto might prove to be difficult, if not impossible for Lara. Cotto could be facing Cornelius Bundrage on September 28th.
Even if Lara had the full WBA 154 lb. title to himself, I don’t think Cotto would take that fight because he’s too dangerous, too powerful and much too slick for him. Lara would be like Austin Trout 2.0 for Cotto, and I don’t think Cotto wants any part of a better version of Trout.
We saw what Trout did to Cotto last December in schooling him badly for 12 rounds and making him look like a shot fighter. If you put Cotto in with Lara, it would be bad for Cotto.
A more realistic option for Lara’s next fight would be someone like Trout, Damian Jonak, or Sergey Rabchenko.
It’s too bad that Cotto probably won’t fight Lara because it would be a good fight and it would be a good career move for Lara. Cotto probably won’t take it because Lara doesn’t have a big enough profile yet in the boxing community in terms of being popular with casual fans, and as I said before, he’s just too dangerous.
The last thing Cotto needs is to get beaten down again by a fighter with a lot of talent. Cotto was beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Trout last year. Cotto is now at the point where he absolutely needs a win to remain a relevant fighter at 154.
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