Erislandy Lara vs. Jan Zaveck tonight on ESPN

By Boxing News - 11/25/2015 - Comments

lara42(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) By Tim Fletcher: WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (21-2-2, 12 KOs) will be defending his title tonight in what shapes up to be a mismatch against Jan Zaveck (35-3, 19 KOs) on ESPN from Hialeah Park Race Track, in Hialeah, Florida.

This is a showcase fight for Lara to make him look good, and to likely help him get one of the bigger fights that he wants against the top middleweights.

By Lara being matched against Zaveck, a fighter who has seen his best days years ago at 147, it increases the odds that Lara will shine in winning.

Lara, 32, says he’s worked hard during training camp at increasing his work rate so that he can throw more combinations. One of the major reasons why Lara lost his fight last year to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was because he didn’t throw enough punches.

Lara made the mistake of trying to beat the highly popular Canelo by throwing pot shots and moving the entire fight. Lara realizes that he can’t continue to fight like that if he wants to beat the top fighters in the 160lb division, which is where Lara plans on moving up to if he can get one of the big names to fight him.

Start time: 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.

Where to watch: Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN.

Location of fight: Hialeah Park Race Track, in Hialeah, Florida

YouTube video

“Zaveck has fought some of the best boxers in the world and I have great respect for him. I’m totally concentrated on my opponent and I want to continue to prove that I am the best 154-pounder in the world,” Lara said.

Zaveck was soundly beaten by Keith Thurman two years ago in the first step up fight for Thurman. Zaveck lost every round in losing by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. Zaveck was totally ineffective in the fight, and did little more than soak up punishment for 12 rounds. Zaveck was also beaten by Andre Berto in the past in losing his IBF welterweight title.

“I’ve been together with my trainer Ronnie Shields for a long time and we’re ready to implement our game plan in the ring on Wednesday night,” Lara said.

Lara won’t need much of a game plan to beat the likes of Zaveck in this fight. Lara can literally box for 12 rounds like he always does in his less than thrilling fighting style, and he’ll get an easy win. However, if Lara wants to impress the boxing fans and make a case that he deserves a fight against Gennady Golovkin, Peter Quillin or Daniel Jacobs, and then he’s going to need to fight hard and throw more punches.

At 32, I think it’s safe to say that Lara’s fighting style is pretty well ingrained. He’s probably not going to change his fighting style. Lara does not like to get hit, and he seems to have stamina issues as well. We saw how Lara struggled in his fight against Alfredo Angulo a couple of years ago from the pressure that Angulo was putting on him.

Lara says he’s cleaned out the 154lb division, and that’s one of the reasons why he’s moving up to middleweight. Unfortunately that’s not true, because Lara lost to Canelo, and never fought the Charlo brothers, Cornelius Bundrage or Demetrius Andrade.



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