By: Danny Kendrick
First up, we have the highly decorated former amateur world champion and thus far, highly dodged Erislany Lara(16-1-1,11 KO’s). With only 18 fights as a professional and only one loss (his only loss being very debatable against Paul Williams), Lara is looking to make a statement in the 154 lb landscape, being as that he’s spent the majority of his boxing career in the amateurs and is 29 years old.
However, many fans, writers, and experts are clamoring for Lara to be the top contender for Canelo’s title, even before the string of opponents who’ve been dismissed as Alvarez’s next challenger for one reason or another. Both are promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, so from an in-house standpoint, it makes sense. However, with all the hype Golden Boy’s been putting behind the red-headed Mexican star, it would be potentially disastrous for him to suffer a loss against a highly unknown fighter like Lara.
Erislandy gets to further state his case against Freddy Hernandez (30-2, 20 KO’s). Despite having a very solid record and wins over notable fighters such as DeMarcus Corley and Luis Collazo, Hernandez has shown definite fragility in getting stopped in only one round against Andre Berto. Against a larger, precision/power punching technician like Lara it could indefinitely be a quick outing (all pun intended) for Hernandez. Another impressive performance would make for an even stronger case for Lara to be the next challenger for Canelo’s 154 WBC title, but could also put him further down Golden Boy’s list of choices, ironically.
