By Jim Dower: This Friday night on March 25th, unbeaten junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (15-0, 10 KO’s0 will be taking on tough Mexican Carlos Molina (17-4-1, 5 KO’s) in a scheduled 10 round bout at the Cosmopolitan Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lara, ranked #5 WBA, #6 IBF, #10 WBC in the junior middleweight division, is looking to impress in this ESPN fight to further show off his skills for boxing fans. Lra, 27, is a former Cuban amateur star and has been impressive in climbing through the ranks.

In the past year, Lara has defeated some quality fighters like Grady Brewer, Danny Perez, Willie Lee, and Delray Raines. Molina is another step up for Lara and it’s going to be interesting to see how the southpaw Lara deals with Molina’s skills. Molina has won nine consecutive fights since losing to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Wayland Willingham and Mike Alvarado earlier in his career. Molina fought Chavez Jr. twice, earning a draw in the first fight and losing the second. I had Molina winning both of the fights. He’s put those controversial fights behind him and is fighting superb as of recently.

On the undercard, another former Cuban star Yudel Jhonson (9-0, 7 KO’s) will be facing 32-year-old Richard Gutierrez in junior middleweight action in a fight scheduled for 10 rounds. This is a considerable step up for the 29-year-old Jhonson, because previous to this fight, he had been fighting guys with losing records. Gutierrez has struggled in the past five years, losing to Joshua Clottey, Alfredo Angulo, Antwone Smith, Luis Carlos Abregu and recently to Zaurbek Baysangurov in December. Gutierrez may have took too big of a step in 2006 when he went from taking on taking on B level fighters to fighting Clottey, a very tough opponent with good power and skills. Gutierrez fought remarkably well in the fight, losing a grueling 12 round majority decision to Clottey. They fight seems to have changed Gutierrez’s fortunes for the worse, however, as he’s struggled off an on since then.

In other action on Friday’s card, cruiserweight Yunier Dorticos will battle William Mitch Williams in a six round fight and lightweight Hylon Williams Jr. will face James Lester in a six round bout.