by Fox Doucette
Golden Boy Promotions chief Richard Schaefer has confirmed that Vanes Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KOs) and Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 KOs) have officially signed on for a November 10th fight date in their WBC title eliminator, the winner becoming the mandatory challenger to titlist Saul “El Canelo” Alvarez sometime in 2013 (this assuming that Alvarez does not either lose the title or have it protected once again by WBC capo Jose Sulaiman).
For Martirosyan, this will be the stiffest test of his career; he has to this point fought lesser competition when compared against his opponent. Wins over Troy Lowry, Richard Gutierrez, and Saul Roman in his last three fights leave some question as to Martirosyan’s true talent level; while he beat all three men soundly, they are not even top-twenty material in the division.
By comparison, Erislandy Lara is battle-hardened, having fought rough scraps with Carlos Molina and Paul Williams, and wary of the judges’ scorecards, given his draw and loss, respectively, in those two fights. The scorecards were an example of “the gods giveth, and the gods taketh away”; many believe Molina won their tilt on ESPN in March of 2010, while the Williams decision was rightly considered one of the biggest judging travesties in the sport in recent memory. Lara has genuine knockout power; nine of his eleven knockouts have come in the first round, and of those, all but the first three were against guys with winning records and at least ten pro fights. Most recently, Lara went the distance in a win over Freddy Hernandez; before that, the Cuban knocked out Ronald Hearns in a single round.
Martirosyan-Lara is planned for the undercard of Manny Pacquiao’s next fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and is likely to be part of a televised undercard. Stay tuned to The Boxing Tribune as we keep you updated on developments in the lead-up to this fight.
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