Former World light-middleweight champion and pound-for-pound superstar Erislandy Lara will be looking to return to winning ways at the Barclays Center when he challenges the undefeated Brian Castano for the WBA ‘regular’ championship, the secondary version of the title he once held until a fateful meeting with undefeated IBF counterpart Jarrett ‘Swift’ Hurd in last April.
On that occasion, the decorated southpaw – although the marginal pre-fight favourite – struggled heavily with Hurd’s relentless volume punching and aggressive combinations, and was unable to glide seamlessly out of range to fire back with surgically accurate counterpunches in the manner that fans had previously been accustomed to, instead coming off second-best in numerous scrappy exchanges before being dropped in the final round en route to losing close a split-decision verdict.
Lara – a Cuban exile who has assumed the moniker of ‘The American Dream’ in a tribute to his adopted home of Houston, Texas – has publicly admitted a hunger to exact revenge on Hurd, but first he must see off Castano; someone who by all accounts is a formidable puncher, having stopped 11 of his 15 opponents.
Truth be told, little is known of the Argentinian apart from what his record suggests, but if Lara’s mobility, accuracy and timing have deteriorated significantly – something which is certainly possible following a 10-month layoff – it could spell disaster for the slippery leftie who previously reigned supreme for years as the division’s de-facto number one, under the guidance of respected trainer Ronnie Shields.
Lara’s compatriot and friend Luis Ortiz – also a defect from the Caribbean island nation where professional boxing is famously banned – returns to the site of his dramatic tussle with WBC World heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in Brooklyn last March. In a see-saw affair which at times resembled a Spaghetti Western shootout, ‘King Kong’ was felled in the fifth, then staggered the champion in the seventh round with a venomous counter right-hand, before being brutally dropped in the tenth to suffer the first defeat of his career.
Since then, he has notched up two stoppage victories over Razvan Cojanu and Travis Kauffman – in the second and tenth rounds respectively – en route to securing another world title opportunity. Like Lara, he is thirsty for revenge, but also has vocally laid down the gauntlet to other contenders in the division and believes that even at the age of 39, with his skillset he is still a formidable challenge for anyone in the division.
Article by: Navi Singh
Follow Navi on Twitter at: @DarkMan________