By Allan Fox: #1 WBC junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (17-1-2, 11 KO’s) has his sights set on fighting the winner of the April 20th unification bout between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and WBA champion Austin Trout. Lara also wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. is possible.
Lara, 29, has to get past #9 WBC Alfredo Angulo (22-2, 18 KO’s) in their fight on June 8th in Carson, California, but if Lara can win that fight then he’ll definitely be in line to face the Canelo vs. Trout winner.
Lara said to RingTV “If I could pick my next three fights, it would first start with the winner of the fight between Canelo Alvarez-Austin Trout, and then I would want to fight…Floyd Mayweather.”
I’d say the chances of Lara getting a fight against Mayweather are extremely slim. Mayweather is likely going to stick with fighting welterweights from now on after his tough fight against junior middleweight Miguel Cotto last year in May.
There’s nothing really appealing in Mayweather fighting Lara because he doesn’t have a large fan base in the United States, and there’s no one aside from Lara and a small handful of fans who wants that fight.
Lara’s best course is to wait until the smoke clears from the Canelo vs. Trout fight and then to look to fight then winner. Lara was supposed to fight Vanes Martirosyan in a final WBC junior middleweight eliminator bout this year, but Martirosyan opted not to take the fight.
Lara will likely have to wait until 2014 before he finally gets a shot against the WBC champion. It may not be Canelo by then if he doesn’t beat Trout this month, but I’m sure Lara doesn’t mind who he fights as long as he gets a title shot against one of these guys.
Angulo could ruin Lara’s big plans if he’s able to pull off a minor upset and beat him in June. Lara shouldn’t assume he’s going to win this fight because Angulo is the biggest puncher he’s faced and it could be a lot tougher fight than he expects it to be.
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