By Jeff Aranow: WBA Super World junior middleweight champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs) has two more fights left at 154 against fringe contender Yuri Foreman (34-2, 10 KOs) and WBC champion Jermell Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs) before he moves up to middleweight to go after the world titles in that weight class.
Lara will be done with the junior middleweight division before the end of 2017. The Lara-Foreman fight will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike. The fight will be taking place at the Hialeah Park Racing Casino in Hialeah, Florida, USA.
One negative that hurts Lara is his age. He’s about to turn 34 in April. While it’s true that middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) is 34 right now, but he’s a MUCH bigger puncher than Lara, and he’s already established himself as the top fighter in the 160lb division. Lara would be moving up to middleweight at a fairly advanced age for him to be trying to find success in that weight class.
It might be better for Lara to scrape his plans for unifying the division at 154 against Jermell, because it’s a time-wasting fight that he might lose. Besides, Jermell is not seen as the better of the Charlo brothers. IBF 154lb champion Jermall Charlo is seen as the dangerous one of the brothers. The only think Lara would prove by beating Jermell is he was able to beat the Charlo with the lesser punching power. Lara wouldn’t get the respect from the boxing public, because they would point out that he didn’t beat Jermall Charlo, which would be a whole different kittle of fish for the aging Lara to attempt to do.
Lara said this about his fight against Foreman:
“On fight night, I’m making another statement and going for the knockout!” said Lara about his fight against Foreman. After this fight, it’s time to unify the division, then move up to win the middleweight titles. Everyone should tune in because it’s going to be a great night of boxing.”
Lara is going to have big problems if he moves up to middleweight. Unless Golovkin losses his titles to Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2017, Lara is going to have problems against the Kazakhstan fighter. If that fight happens, hopefully Lara tries to fight and does run from Golovkin. I think it would be bad for Lara’s career to be seen running from Golovkin for 12 rounds like he was doing in his loss to Canelo Alvarez.
If you’re going to lose a fight against one of the top guys like Golovkin, you want to be seen battling hard and not spoiling for 12 rounds. The boxing fans don’t forget poor performances, and I believe the sanctioning bodies are the same way. Lara needs to be willing to go down with the ship if he faces Golovkin in 2018. Lara can’t keep fighting the way he’s been doing and have any chance of ever beating Golovkin.
Lara hasn’t been knocking guys out during the last three years of his career, so it’s difficult to picture him doing that with the light hitting Foreman. The only fighter that Lara has knocked recently was the 39-year-old former welterweight champion Jan Zaveck in November of 2015. Knocking Zaveck out isn’t a big deal due to his age and the fact that he’s not a legitimate 154lb fighter. He’s just a guy that moved up in weight to the junior middleweight division as he neared 40. Lara failed to get knockouts in his fights against Vanes Martirosyan, Delvin Rodriguez, Ishe Smith, Saul Canelo Alvarez and Austin Trout. The power wasn’t there or Lara wasn’t willing to step on the gas in a hard enough way for him to get a stoppage win.
Lara has said in the past that he would gladly move up to middleweight to fight Golovkin if he would agree to fight him. But with Lara not fighting in the weight class, and with him not being a big name that brings much to the table, Golovkin chose not to fight him. Lara has a negative style of fighting that isn’t likely appealing to Golovkin, because it would likely mean that he would need to chase the Cuban fighter around the ring all night long like Canelo had to in his fight against him. Golovkin prefers to face guys that come to fight and are willing to throw punches rather than move for 12 rounds, which is what the southpaw Lara will likely be doing against him if/when they ever fight. Lara has good boxing skills and defensive ability, but he doesn’t let his hands go. He’s also not willing to stand in the pocket for any length of time without getting on his bike and moving away from danger.
Unless the World Boxing Association is going to install Lara as the No.1 mandatory contender at middleweight to force a fight against Golovkin in 2017, it could take Lara a long time for him to get a title shot against him when he does move up in weight. Golovkin would almost surely make Lara work his way to the No.1 mandatory spot with one of the sanctioning bodies before he would choose to fight him. Golovkin isn’t likely going to give Lara a title shot as a voluntary challenger. I can’t see that happening, because there are too many other fighters for Golovkin to face that have more appealing fighting styles or bring more boxing fans to the table.
Lara’s fight against the 36-year-old Foreman hasn’t made him too popular with the boxing fans. Foreman is a former WBA junior middleweight champion, whose career has not been the same since his losses to Miguel Cotto and Pawel Wolak six years ago. Those fights took place a LONG time ago, and Foreman hasn’t face good opposition since those defeats. Wolak was never that great of a fighter, and yet he easily beat Foreman by a 6th round stoppage on March 12, 2011. Wolak’s own career ended the same year with him losing a lopsided 10 round unanimous decision to Delvin Rodriguez in December 2011. Wolak hasn’t fought since that loss. Foreman has won all of his last five fights since the loss to Wolak, but he’s been facing terrible opposition.
The WBA still gave Foreman a No.9 ranking with organization, but he probably shouldn’t be ranked in the top 15 at all, period. With the wins that Foreman has had since his loss to Wolak, it just looks like he’s beating 3rd tier guys to pad his record. It’s the job of the sanctioning bodies to make sure they’re picking out guys that have the talent and fighting quality opposition for them to rank them highly. Foreman has beaten no one that would suggest that he should be ranked above Erickson Lubin, which is what the WBA has him ranked ahead of.
Former WBC super middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell (29-1, 23 KOs) will be fighting on the undercard against Hungarian fighter Norbert Nemesapati (24-5, 17 KOs) in a 10 round fight. Dirrell is ranked #2 with the World Boxing Council at 168. This is not a great fight for the ring rusty Dirrell, who hasn’t fought since last April when he beat Caleb Truax by a 1st round knockout.
Dirrell, 32, lost his WBA title to Badou Jack last year in losing a 12 round decision. Jack didn’t do anything special other than walking down the flat-footed Dirrell and outworking him with combination punching. Dirrell wasn’t able to use any kind of movement to elude Jack’s attacks, and he wasn’t capable of throwing sustained combinations to get the better of him. It was obvious what Dirrell needed to do from the 1st round, but he didn’t have the mobility or the punch volume to beat Jack. Dirrell will likely never be a mobile fighter. He doesn’t have the leg speed for him to get out of the way of guys that are coming to outwork him like Jack.
The 21-year-old Nemesapati has suffered past losses to Callum Smith, Umar Salamov, Schiller Hyppolite and Jason Escalera. Nemesapati appears to be heading towards a future as a journeyman unless he can improve his game in a significant manner.