Lara stops Zaveck in 3rd – results

By Boxing News - 11/25/2015 - Comments

lara88888(Photo credit: Premier Boxing Champions) By Jim Dower: In a huge mismatch, WBA World junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (22-2-2, 13 KOs) retained his WBA 154lb title on Wednesday in stopping an injured and old looking 39-year-old former IBF welterweight champion Jan Zaveck (35-4, 19 KOs) in the 3rd round in a fight televised on Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN from the Hialeah Park Race Track, in Hialeah, Florida, USA.

Lara hurt Zaveck with a straight left hand to the head in the 3rd round, and then followed up with a left-right and then a right hand, as Zaveck then turned his back on Lara and bent forward in pain. The referee Telis Assimenios then stepped in and halted the fight once he realized that Zaveck was too hurt to continue. The fight was officially halted at 0:41 of the 3rd.

Zaveck motioned afterwards that his right shoulder was injured somehow. It’s unclear how he was injured because he wasn’t throwing a punch at the time he was hit with three head shots from Lara.

Lara had Zaveck hurt late in the 1st and 2nd rounds from straight left hands to the head. Zaveck was knocked backwards in both cases and look shaky. In the 1st, Lara knocked Zaveck to the ropes and had him looking defenseless. Late in the 2nd round, Lara caught Zaveck with a hard left to the head as he was coming forward. The shot knocked Zaveck backwards and almost dropped him. He was badly hurt from the punch, but was saved by the bell.

This was one of Lara’s rare fights where he didn’t use movement to move and box for the entire fight. Instead, Lara stood in the pocket in front of Zaveck and bombed him with straight left hands and jabs. When Zaveck did come forward, Lara was able to lean backwards to avoid his shots. This was a style that worked well for Lara, as he showed that he can win without running around the ring like he’d done in other fights.

If Lara wants to win more fans and get the bigger fights, he’s going to need to prove that he can stay in the pocket and punch with his opponents. None of these fighters will want to fight Lara if he’s seen as the equivalent of Guillermo Rigondeaux. Lara has been too safety first in the past, and that really hurt his popularity. Lara had a big chance to beat Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last year, but he blew his chance by using too much movement and not staying in the pocket to trade shots.

This was a showcase fight for Lara tonight. He was matched up against an old fringe contender in Zaveck. Lara looked good in the fight, but he’s going to need to prove that he can fight in an exciting manner like he did tonight against the better fighters at 154 or 160 if he chooses to move up to the middleweight division after tonight.

Lara’s manager Luis Decubas recently said that Lara will move up to middleweight next if he can get a big fight against the likes of Gennady Golovkin or the winner of the Peter Quillin vs. Daniel Jacobs fight. I think it’s highly unlikely that Lara will get any of those guys to fight him because he doesn’t have a big enough fan base to lure those fighters to face him, and he’s not coming off of a big win. In fact, Lara hasn’t beaten a top name since his win over Austin Trout two years ago in 2013.



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