As the corny old Meatloaf song goes, two out of three ain’t bad. PBC and Showtime bring three junior middleweight title defenses to us Saturday night. While the main event between Erislandy Lara and Terrell Gausha isn’t exactly a compelling fight, the other two defenses are thankfully really excellent stuff. Red hot Jermell Charlo will defend against super prospect Erickson Lubin and recent titlist Jarrett Hurd will do the same against former titleholder Austin Trout in the opener.
WBA titleholder Erislandy Lara (24-4-2, 14 KOs) has a name that really demands respect. With the subtraction of Canelo Alvarez from the division, he is my top junior middleweight. Many thought he narrowly beat Alvarez anyway. The thing with the Cuban, however, is that as good as he is, he just isn’t that compelling of a watch. He also isn’t untouchable either as we’ve seen him struggle a bit in the past against Vanes Martirosyan the first time and Carlos Molina too. Those fights were a while ago now, but really it has been a while since he really fought anyone at all. This is no fault of his own as the top have been largely avoiding him, but it is true nonetheless.
Unfortunately, Terrell Gausha (20-0, 9 KOs) isn’t changing this all that much. Gausha isn’t a bad talent by any means. He did win a fight in London during the 2012 games for Team USA. Yet, as a pro he has faced no real top competition, shown no real power, and probably should have lost last year to a regional level guy in Steven Martinez. It seems to me that Haymon and the PBC team are just cashing Gausha out for one main event he probably can’t win here.
Worst of all, this isn’t likely to be a fun fight to watch either. We are likely in for a tedious, slow mismatch in the main event. Hopefully I am wrong, but it does look like a pretty easy one to call.
In better news, the middle fight on the card is a pretty amazing one. Last time out, Jermell Charlo (29-0, 14 KOs) looked downright spectacular in switching up his style to aggressively attack his challenger Charles Hatley. It had always been strange that Jermell had shown such little power when his identical twin brother Jermall has been such a puncher, but he found it and then some here in smashing Hatley out in six.
The great performance was enough to erase his last shaky one completely out of the collective mind of fight fans. In May of 2016, Charlo really struggled with John Jackson, losing every round before rallying for an improbable late stoppage comeback win. A lot of people have found it curious that in the current boxing climate in which top prospects are basically handed belts, Erickson Lubin (18-0, 13 KOs) is being asked to take on such a hot fighter. The John Jackson fight is what I think of as an explanation.
Jackson is a good fighter, but he isn’t half the talent that 22 year old Erickson Lubin is. Lubin is just an all around dynamic athlete with real composure and boxing skill. I believe that Haymon and PBC believe that the John Jackson fight better represented the real Jermell Charlo and that Hatley was just a weak challenger. I think they are trying to transfer the shine that Charlo picked up against Hatley to Erickson Lubin here. It seems like a damn good plan too if they are right.
Opening the show is another compelling fight between IBF titlist Jarrett Hurd (20-0, 14 KOs) and former titleholder Austin Trout (30-3, 17 KOs). 27 year old Hurd picked up his belt last time out in a vacant title fight against Tony Harrison. He had to come from behind after falling behind early that night in February, but a ninth round stoppage erased those rounds in a hurry. Otherwise Hurd has good, but not spectacular wins over the likes of Jo Jo Dan and Frank Galarza.
The Maryland native is can be outboxed. He has a sort of lumbering, controlled brawling type style that Harrison was able to exploit for at least a short amount of time. Austin Trout could potentially do even better at this. Trout burst onto the scene with a 2012 win over Miguel Cotto followed by a very good performance against Canelo Alvarez, but he faded away a bit after Erislandy Lara beat him so easily.
It is his most recent fight that is most relevant though. Last May against Jermall Charlo, the better perceived of the Charlo twins, Austin Trout put on a really good outside boxing display with his lateral movement. Jermall, since moved up to middleweight, is a really outstanding talent. In my estimation, he is much more skilled and athletic than Hurd. Trout only lost that fight by the narrowest of margins.
The New Mexican is 32 now and has been pretty inactive. I would pick the man I saw against Charlo over the man I saw against Harrison for sure, but Hurd is at a point where he should be improving and Trout is at a point in which he might be slipping due to age and inactivity. Much like Charlo/Lubin, this is a really interesting matchup.
Showtime has the broadcast at 10 PM Eastern. The idea is that the FOX show will lead right into this one.
