By Jeff Aranow: WBA Super World junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs) plans on leaving the three judges with no say so in the outcome of his fight Yuri Foreman (34-2, 10 KOs) on January 13 on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Hialeah Park in Hialeah, Florida.
Having lost twice in the past in controversial decisions to Paul Williams and Saul Canelo Alvarez, Lara plans on making sure the judges cannot control his fate for his fight against the 36-year-old Foreman. The good news for the 33-year-old Lara is Foreman has no punching power to speak of, so it shouldn’t be a risky thing for him to stand in the pocket and shoot for the knockout.
The reason Lara lost to Canelo by a 12 round split decision in 2014 was his refusal to stand in front of him and show the judges that he was willing to fight. The constant movement that Lara used against Canelo made it appear to some boxing fans – and likely the judges – that he was running from the Mexican star. It was a winnable fight for Lara, but his poor choice of tactics against a big name proved to be his undoing.
Lara has since gone 4-0 since his loss to Canelo. He’s beaten Ishe Smith, Delvin Rodriguez, Jan Zaveck and Vanes Martirosyan. Of those four, only Martirosyan is considered a top level fighter. Lara’s other three fights were against weaker opposition. That’s another area that Lara needs to improve on. Fighting the lesser fighters hasn’t done much in raising Lara’s profile, because he’s fighting too many weaker opponents and not facing the guys that the boxing fans want to see him fight. Lara’s decision to fight Foreman is arguably another mistake, because he’s someone that is right there with the likes of Zaveck and Delvin Rodriguez in the talent department.
Lara said this to premierboxingchampions.com about wanting to get a knockout win over Foreman:
“I feel motivation to make it an easy slugfest type of knockout,” said Lara. “I’ve proven I’m one of the best, and I’ve been active in fighting the best competition that will step in the ring with me,” said Lara.
It’s not as if Foreman hasn’t been stopped before. He was stopped the last time he fought a quality opponent six years ago in a 6th round knockout loss to Pawel Wolak in 2011. All of Foreman’s fights since then has come against poor opposition. He’s been too slow in rebuilding his career since his back to back losses to Wolak and Cotto.