Don’t sleep on this one.
Premier Boxing Champions will return once again to its home on the eastern seaboard at the Barclay’s Center on March 2nd. The main event of the Showtime broadcast card will see Erislandy Lara (25-3-2, 11 KOs) return for the first time since his sensational, extremely narrow points loss to Jarrett Hurd last April in a fight of the year candidate. His opponent will be top prospect Brian Castaño (15-0, 11 KOs).
This is a good one on paper for sure. The Cuban junior middleweight has long been considered one of the sport’s best fighters. After a disappointing performance in a draw against one of the many Carlos Molinas, Lara comfortably outboxed top contender Paul Williams even though he was robbed by the judges in the end. Wins over top contenders Alfredo Angulo and Austin Trout saw him in with a younger Canelo Alvarez in 2014. Erislandy didn’t get the decision over the Mexican superstar in a fight most observers seemed to score for him, but that was also a really close fight on all cards too.
From there Lara sort of stepped back into easier defenses for a few years in an odd move. Part of that lackluster run was how hard it was for the Cuban amateur program product to get big fights. He didn’t bring much money to the table and was viewed as quite dangerous afterall. The drought of top opponents ended last time out against Jarrett Hurd, however. Lara boxed well early in that one, but the usual second half monster push by the oversized American culminated in Lara hitting the canvas hard in the twelfth round and losing the fight by that one point margin on the official scorecards. It was a truly great fight, one of the best of the year. Erislandy Lara has nothing to hang his head about following the loss.
29 year old Argentinian contender Brian Castaño will have the age advantage against the potentially fading 35 year old when they meet. Not only that, but Castaño is one of the best kept secrets the whole sport. He was an excellent amateur with wins over the likes of Esquiva Falcao, Jack Culcay, Errol Spence Jr, and Sergiy Derevyanchenko and this has translated well to the pro game. Brian already has a great win on the road in France against fellow under the radar elite talent Michel Soro last year. That is a serious win.
If Erislandy Lara is sliding down the hill of time, Brian Castaño will definitely show us. My question here is whether not the Cuban actually needs to be slipping in his craft for the Argentinian to triumph. Castaño is an excellent young fighter who would be competitive with any version of Lara from the last few years. I am really looking forward to this one.
