Erislandy Lara 153 vs. Greg Vendetti 152.4 – weigh-in results

By Boxing News - 08/28/2020 - Comments

By Matt Lieberman:  Erislandy Lara weighed in at 153 pounds at the weigh-in on Friday for his first title defense of his WBA ‘regular’ junior middleweight belt against #11 WBA Greg Vendetti this Saturday night at the Microsoft Theater, in Los Angeles, California.

(Photo credit: Sean Michael Ham/TGB Promotions

The 30-year-old Vendetti (22-3-1, 12 KOs), who comes from Massachusetts, weighed in at 152.4 lbs.

Lara vs. Vendetti will be the headliner attraction on FOX PBC Fight Night this Saturday. The card starts at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m PT.

Lara expected to win

The talented former Cuban national champion Lara, 37, recently captured WBA secondary 154-pound title last year in August in massacring one of Canelo Alvarez’s brothers, Ramon Alvarez, by a second-round knockout in Minneapolis.

Lara’s win was the first in two years, as he’d come up empty in losing a narrow 12 round split decision to Jarrett Hurd in April 2018 and then fighting to a 12 round draw against Brian Carlos Castano last year in March 2019.

Image: Erislandy Lara 153 vs. Greg Vendetti 152.4 - weigh-in results

Hurd and Castano are two exceptional fighters, but Lara was able to stay in there and fight them to a standstill. Hurd got the nod over Lara based on his 12th round knockdown, But if not for that, Lara would have beaten him.

“A victory puts me in line to fight the Charlo vs. Rosario winner, if that’s the direction my team wants to go,” said Lara.

“The goal for me is to unify the titles and become the undisputed champion of the 154-pound division. My body feels good and I feel I’m still the best fighter at super welterweight.”

Erislandy would have an excellent chance of being WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo or IBF/WBA champion Jeison Rosario, as both of them are beatable. Charlo lost recently to Tony Harrison, and Nathaniel Gallimore stopped Rosario in 2017.

Lara has had some tough luck during his career with a controversial 12 round split decision defeat against Canelo Alvarez in 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Many boxing fans had Lara winning that fight, but the most popular Canelo won the decision.

In losing a controversial decision to Alvarez, Lara is in good company with Austin trout and Gennady Golvkin. Those two were also on the receiving end of a questionable decision loss to Alvarez.

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Alfredo Angulo vs. Vladimir Hernandez 

In the co-feature weights, #11 IBF & #12 WBA super middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo weighed in at 167.8 lbs for his scheduled 10-round fight against replacement opponent Vladimir Hernandez.

“El Perro” Angulo (26-7, 21 KOs) was initially scheduled to face former IBF super-middleweight champion, Caleb Truax, in the chief support bout. Still, Caleb had to pull out of the fight on Friday due to him being dehydrated.

What’s interesting is Angulo was supposed to be the B-side opponent for former IBF 168lb champion Truax, who is trying to get in position to challenge for his old title against the current champ Caleb Plant.

The idea was for Truax to get sharpened up against Angulo to get a title shot against Plant. Unfortunately for Truax, he suffered dehydration while trying to make weight and had to be pulled from the card.

Now Angulo is the A-side against little known substitute opponent Vladimir Hernandez, and he’s expected to beat him.

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Angulo’s opponent, 31-year-old Vladimir Hernandez (11-4, 6 KOs), weighed in at 165 pounds. Hernandez was born in Durango, Mexico, and he now lives in Denver, Colorado.

He comes into Saturday’s fight, having lost two out of his last three contests in losses to Souleymane Cissokho and Israil Madrimov. However, Hernandez is coming off of a 10 round split decision win over Aaron Coley last July.

Alfredo needs a win

Angulo, 38, can’t afford to overlook Hernandez, as this is someone that is going to be highly motivated because a victory for him would be huge. Hernandez has never beaten a contender before, and he’s being brought in as last-minute replacement opponent.

Angulo has recently rejuvenated his career with consecutive wins over former middleweight world champion Peter Quillin and journeyman Evert Bravo. Before that, Angulo lost straight fights against Sergio Mora and Freddy Hernandez.

It was Angulo’s superb performance against the former WBA junior middleweight champion Mora in 2018 that made boxing fans realize that he’s still got a lot left. Angulo lost a controversial eight-round decision against Mora, and a lot of people thought he deserved to get the nod with the judges.

Angulo has a lot of experience during his 15-year pro career. The heavy-handed Angulo represented Mexico in the 2004 Athens Olympics. As a pro, Angulo has fought the following well-known fighters:

  • Canelo Alvarez
  • Kermit Cintron
  • Erislandy Lara
  • James Kirkland
  • Sergio Mora
  • Gabriel Rosado
  • Peter Quillin
  • Joel Julio
  • Joachim Alcine

Image: Erislandy Lara 153 vs. Greg Vendetti 152.4 - weigh-in results

Speed is always a problem

Angulo is a good fighter, but his lack of hand speed has led to him losing to the likes of Canelo, Cintron, Kirland, James De La Rosa, and Freddy Hernandez. The defeats to Cintron and Mora were controversial.

Hernandez isn’t a speed demon in terms of hand speed, so Angulo should be OK in this fight.

The only career defeats that Angulo has suffered in which he lost were against Lara, Canelo, Hernandez, and De La Rosa.

Once Angulo starts landing his big power shots on Hernandez this Saturday, he should wear him down and possibly score a stoppage.

In other weights for Saturday’s card: 

  • Light welterweight Abram Martinez weighed in at 141 pounds for his fight against Luis Arcon, who came in at 139.8 lbs. Arcon fought in the 2016 Olympics for Venezuela. Martinez vs. Arcon will be televised as part of Saturday’s TV broadcast on Fox.
  • Thomas LaManna 153.8 vs. Brian Mendoza 153.8
  • Justin Pauldo 138.2 vs. Josec Ruiz 137.8
  • Jose Valenzuela 134.4 vs. Zack Kuhn 135