Erislandy Lara vs. Yuri Foreman on Jan.13 on Spike TV

By Boxing News - 12/12/2016 - Comments

Image: Erislandy Lara vs. Yuri Foreman on Jan.13 on Spike TV

By Eric Baldwin: WBA World ‘Super’ junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs) will be making his fifth defense of his title next month against former WBA 154lb champion Yuri Foreman (34-2, 10 KOs) on January 13 on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV from the Hialeah Park Amphitheater in Hialeah, Florida, according to RingTV.

It’ll be a voluntary defense for Lara, as the 36-year-old Foreman is ranked #10 with the WBA. Foreman is lucky to be ranked that high though, as he’s only fought twice in the last three years. Foreman was out of the sport from 2013 to 2015. He came back in 2015 and he’s beaten Lenwood Dozier (9-9-1) and Jason Davis (13-11-2) since his return.

Those are not good fighters, and it’s unclear why the World Boxing Association has Foreman ranked in their top 15 off of wins over those fighters. Foreman has very little punching power to speak of, which makes him perfect for Lara. He’s no threat to beating him in other words. The good news is that after Lara easily beats Foreman, he’s supposed to be facing WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo in a unification match.

Jermell is the lighter punching brother of IBF champion Jermall Charlo, who impressed last Saturday night with a 5th round knockout win over Julian “J-Rock” Williams. Lara would have a lot of problems with Jermall. That would be a very dangerous fight for the soon to be 34-year-old Cuban Lara. He’s better off facing Jermell. Even that fight could prove to be one step too far the aging Lara, who hasn’t faced a real threat since his loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2014. Lara will need to show offense to beat Jermell.

This will be another easy fight for Lara, who hasn’t done a whole lot since picking up his WBA title in 2014. Lara’s four successful defenses have come against Ishe Smith (2014), Delvin Rodriguez (2015), Jan Zaveck (2015), and Vanes Martirosyan in May 2016. The rematch against Martirosyan was a good match for Lara, but his fights against Rodriguez, Smith and Zaveck have to be seen as disappointing due to the less than spectacular quality of opposition.

The 38-year-old Ishe Smith was a good fighter years ago, but he hasn’t done much in the last three years of his caeer in losing to Lara, Carlos Molina and Martirosyan.

Foreman held the WBA 154lb title from 2009 to 2014 until losing his belt to Miguel Cotto in 2010 by a 9th round knockout. That was the fight in which Foreman’s bad knee prevented him moving around against Cotto. It was target practice for Cotto in landing at will against a limping Foreman. In Foreman’s next fight, he was blown out six rounds by Pawel Wolak in March 2011. Believe it or not, that was the last time Foreman fought a semi-decent opponent. Since then, Foreman has beaten these fighters: Brandon Baue (12-9), Gundrick King (18-9), Jovany Javier Gomez (14-13), Lenwood Dozier and Jason Davis.

Lara is a good fighter, but it’s impossible to know how good he is because he’s no longer fighting good opponents since his loss to Canelo. Some boxing fans think that Lara has been milking his title by fighting guys that he can definitely beat with 100 percent certainty. Fighting Yuri Foreman would seem to be yet another guaranteed win for Lara. He says he would like to fight middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, but he’s not going to be able to get a fight against GGG unless he moves up in weight and starts beating better fighters.

The match against Foreman would have made sense six years ago when the Russian fighter was a major player in the sport, but he’s done nothing for many years since his lost to Cotto in 2010. Sadly, Foreman’s last solid win over a quality fighter was seven years ago in 2009, when he beat Daniel Santos by a 12 round unanimous decision.

Santos was at the end of his career when Foreman beat him. We don’t know how Foreman would have done against a younger version of Santos, who beat Antonio Margarito in 2004. Foreman got Santos late in his career.
Lara would like a rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez after losing to him by a 12 round split decision in 2014. The problem is that Lara isn’t fighting the type of guys that is increasing his popularity in the boxing fans. Fighting guys like 40-year-old Zaveck, Delvin Rodriguez and Ishe Smith isn’t going to raise Lara’s stature in the sport. The fight against Martirosyan made sense, but definitely not the other guys.

If Lara wasn’t able to get better opponents at 154 to fight him, then he should have started facing guys from the middleweight and super middleweight divisions so that he could increase his popularity. By fighting the guys that he’s been fighting in the last two years, Lara has not done much at all. He should have taken on Julian Williams or one or both of the Charlo brothers a long time ago instead of the guys that he’s been facing.

Foreman will likely be way over his head against the southpaw Lara. If Foreman had some punching power, then he could at least be a knockout threat to Lara, but he’s not a puncher by any means, and that’s going to hurt his chances of winning this fight. Lara reportedly rehydrates to the 170s for his fights, which begs the question why hasn’t he moved up in weight to fight at middleweight? Lara would have been able to fight guys like Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders by now if he’d moved up to 160.