Erislandy Lara and Jarrett Hurd will unify two of the four junior middleweight titles Saturday night on Showtime. That is a quality fight and an interesting stylistic matchup. James DeGale will try to redeem himself in his second chance against Caleb Truax in the co-main event of the tripleheader as well.
To me Erislandy Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) is one of the most interesting fighters to talk about in the sport. This has everything to do with his reputation versus his resume. Generally fight fans are harsh in this regard. Internet commentary is full of men crying from their couches about who hasn’t fought what level of competition and how that shows who they really are. Yet, Erislandy Lara seems relatively immune to this.
Lara was a known prospect coming out of the Cuban amateur system, but he took a very understandable nine fights before stepping up and knockout out veteran Grady Brewer late in their 2010 fight. That fight cemented Lara as a serious prospect to watch and he spent his next five fights wiping the floor with lesser competition including four first round knockouts.
2011 was a more interesting year for the Cuban, however. After the last of his easy wins, he met underrated Mexican spoiler Carlos Molina on ESPN2’s now defunct Friday Night Fights. Molina’s career has tanked in recent years, but that night he was on point. To be blunt, I thought Erislandy Lara was tremendously fortunate to come out of that fight with an unearned draw. Yet, that fight still managed to come on the heels of his biggest opportunity to date against emerging oversize junior middleweight star Paul Williams just a few months later on HBO. The Williams fight was nearly the exact inverse of the Molina fight; Erislandy Lara should have been given a clear decision, but somehow he was handed a loss.
After two lower level wins, Lara stepped back up a bit to meet Top Rank prospect Vanes Martirosyan in a boring fight that was ruled a technical draw after nine dreadful rounds thanks to an accidental foul caused cut. Lara followed that with an exciting but shaky performance over Alfredo Angulo in which he won by tenth round stoppage, but took a lot of punishment along the way. This launched Lara into his biggest opportunity in July of 2014 against top divisional contender Austin Trout. That fight was probably Erislandy Lara’s best performance as he completely neutralized Trout. He then met then 23 year old emerging Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez in his highest profile contest to date. Lara used his veteran savvy that night to fight a very even fight with the hyper talented Mexican, but he didn’t get the decision in the end. I would have been fine with that fight being scored either way.
That fight was nearly four years ago and Erislandy Lara has not been in a meaningful fight since. Ishe Smith, Delvin Rodriguez, Jan Zaveck, a rematch with Vanes Martirosyan, Yuri Foreman, and Terrell Gausha have all been his victims. Those are good fighters, each and every one of them, but none of them are world class opponents. This changes against Jarrett Hurd on Saturday night, but I want to briefly go over all that again in simpler forms.
Erislandy Lara lost to Carlos Molina, but beat Paul Williams. He fought to a nothing draw with Vanes Martirosyan, but later avenged it. He also fought life and death with a really limited fighter in Alfredo Angulo before beautifully outboxing Austin Trout. He then fought evenly with a 23 year old Canelo. Since then, he has fought substandard competition exclusively. Now I will definitely concede that no one exactly has been lining up to fight him, but that is still his resume. Why is he considered the top junior middleweight and one of the better technical fighters in boxing? He’s shown the ability in glimpses, but the consistency hasn’t been there.
Jarrett Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs) will definitely be here to test that reputation. The 27 year old Maryland product first burst on the scene with an upset stoppage of Frank Galarza on ShoBox in late 2015. He followed that with a pair of decent step up the ladder stoppages against Mexican Olympian Oscar Molina and fringe contender JoJo Dan before approaching world clas competition in 2017.
Last year Hurd first met talented but somewhat fragile Tony Harrison before challenging longtime top divisional contender Austin Trout later in the year. Both fights saw Hurd fall behind early and both fight saw him roar back with extremely impressive late stoppage wins. While I wrote a book above on Erislandy Lara, that is all there is to write about the career of Jarrett Hurd.
Still, it is enough to give us an idea about what to expect come Saturday night. Jarrett Hurd is the less technical fighter here for sure and is very likely to fall behind in this fight early. Can he yet again rally to come back with late pressure to steal the win? I really think he might be able to. Erislandy Lara is 34 and hasn’t fought a world class body in nearly four years. On top of that, a lesser talent like Alfredo Angulo has been able to get to him with consistent pressure. Jarrett Hurd is a much better athlete than Angulo. Looking at the two products, I am going to pick Jarrett Hurd to get a late stoppage or do enough in the second half of the fight to steal a close decision.
The winner here will hold both the WBA and IBF belts.
The co-main event of Saturday’s card is a rematch of one of the biggest upsets of 2017. James DeGale (23-2-1, 14 KOs) was a heavy favorite in December against Caleb Truax (29-3-2, 18 KOs) to say the least. I myself had the following to say when previewing the fight: “If James DeGale doesn’t win this one impressively, something is wrong.” I was hardly alone in that sentiment either. Yet, DeGale had little to offer in the fight and his thought to be journeyman foe was able to string together enough work to steal his belt. Again James DeGale comes into a fight with Caleb Truax the much more talented fighter. If it didn’t matter last time, however, will it this time? This is a truly a make or break moment for the future of James DeGale’s career. There can be no mistaking this fact. I suspect he’ll pull through, but I also thought that last time.
Opening the show is a well matched if low key junior middleweight showdown between Julian “J-Rock” Williams (24-1-1, 15 KOs) and Jamaica’s Nathaniel Gallimore (20-1-1, 18 KOs). J-Rock was the once celebrated prospect, but he is still working his way back from being utterly flattened by Jermall Charlo in his one title shot. Gallimore, on the other hand, has worked his way up the old fashioned way. One decision set back in 2016 aside, he has risen up by beating men he wasn’t necessarily supposed to beat. Most recently he scored stoppage wins over unbeaten Jeison Rosario and hot rising prospect Justin DeLoach. I really like this fight and I am thrilled Showtime has decided to air it. It really is a pick’em contest, but my gut says Gallimore is more ready to do what needs to be done to take it.
Showtime and PBC’s card will begin at 10 PM Eastern on Saturday night. I really like this one so don’t miss it.
