MIAMI – Haileah Park Racing & Casino hosted the year’s first Premier Boxing Champions event – on a Friday the 13th. IBO and WBA Super World super welterweight champion Erislandy Lara (24-2-2, 14 KOs) faced Yuri Foreman (34-4, 10 KOs), and the fight was aired on Spike starting at 9:00 PM EST. Lara needed a thrilling victory to position himself for a marquee bout. Foreman – fighting for just the third time in as many years – could find himself holding a pair of belts with an upset victory. Quite a favorable situation for the 36-year old from Brooklyn.
Unfortunately for Foreman, Lara’s precision left-handed power punching cut short the six rounds of work he predicted leading up to fight night. The southpaw wrapped up the evening’s action with a left upper cut in the fourth round.
Lara walked to Foreman through the first two rounds, as the former WBA world champion circled away from the Cuban’s power hand. The southpaw champion went to work from the outset pumping a short right jab that was mainly used as a range finder. Foreman failed to establish much with his own jab or use his height advantage to any benefit. The fight’s action was pretty slow through the first two rounds until Lara snapped back Foreman’s head with a crisp straight left in the closing seconds of round-two.
As the fight moved into the third round Foreman still hadn’t managed to land anything flush as Lara controlled the action. In the round’s final minute the two fighters’ feet appeared to collide, simultaneously as Lara fired off a short flurry, and a knock down was called as Foreman stumbled down to the canvas.
At times the crowd seemed to grow slightly frustrated as Foreman studied Lara’s defense for openings while rarely committing to any power punches, but the champion slowly began connecting more often, and even tried to add the right hook. From the second round on Foreman began shooting a jab, and then bodying up to Lara to get off some hooks to the champion’s body.
Foreman’s attack was unsuccessful and at 1:47 in the fourth round Lara timed Foreman stepping in, and caught him with a right jab-left upper cut combination that resulted in a slightly delayed knock down. Foreman never saw the upper cut that lightly grazed his chest before colliding with the left side of his chin. The former world champion attempted to get back to his feet a few times, but the referee reached the count of ten as Foreman was still struggling to get his legs under him.
Lara earned his exciting knock out victory that should help dispel the belief that he’s a boring, or safety-first, fighter. This is a reputation that largely stems from his cautious 2014 performance against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. There’s a plethora of great options at 154 pounds right now, and of course Gennady Golovkin is one of the sport’s biggest pound-for-pound fighters at middleweight. Just a one weight division jump for Lara.
Ideally, a super welterweight match up with Demetrius Andrade or either of the Charlo twins would be great developments for the division.
Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell (30-1-1, 24 KOs) vs Norbert Nemesapati (24-5, 17 KOs): The bout began with a fairly evenly contested opening round. Dirrell worked quickly establishing his jab followed up by a variety of crisp power shots. Nemesapati withstood Dirrell’s expected quick start, continued to stand in the pocket with the former world champion, and attempted to find a way to return fire in between Dirrell’s shots and tight guard.
Dirrell’s attack quickly escalated in the second round, and a stoppage looked imminent as he explosively unloaded on Nemesapati for nearly the full final minute of the second round.
Into the third round, Dirrell began to connect with jarring upper cuts while also committing to punishing body work on the Hungarian. Nemesepati began to show signs of the punishment, and was visibly rocked again as the round ended.
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Dirrell opened the fourth round stalking Nemesapati around the ring virtually landing power shots at will. Nemesapati backed up and circled around the ring throughout the round occasionally catching Dirrell with a single punch before moving out of range.
In the first minute of round five Dirrell landed a thunderous right hook to Nemesapati’s body that buckled the younger fighter. The referee monitored Nemesapati closely over the first the two-thirds of the round before Dirrell eased up and taunted the dazed fighter by placing both hands behind his back.
Dirrell continued to batter Nemesapati thoroughly with both hands through the sixth round, but never fully went all out for the stoppage. The doctor visited the young Hungarian during the break before the seventh round where Nemesapati’s corner advised him that their fighter would not continue. This was a similar ending to Nemesapati’s September 2016 fight at London’s O2 Arena against Callum Smith – a shot at the WBC Silver super middleweight title – where the 21-year old did not return to action in the seventh round.
Dirrell spent the final three rounds of the fight with no regard for defense, he was dominant in his technical knockout victory, but The Dog can expect far more challenging opposition in facing any of the top fighters at super middleweight.
Juan Carlos Payano (18-1, 9 KOs) vs Isao Gonzalo Carranza (15-8-1, 8 KOs): Former WBA Super World and IBO World bantamweight titleholder Juan Carlos Payano convincingly outclassed Carranza for seven lopsided rounds before the fight was halted at 1:16 by the referee. The technical knockout win came in Payano’s first action in the ring since his June 2016 majority decision loss to Cincinnati, Ohio bantamweight Rau’Shee Warren. Could their be a trilogy between the two men? Warren’s slated to defend his title on the PBC’s Feb. 10th card on Bounce TV.
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