The Light Middleweight division is rather odd. At the top we have a part-time Light Middleweight in Floyd Mayweather Jr, somewhere below him we have Saul Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, two of the biggest draws in the sport. Then comes a lot of fighters looking to make a name for themselves. This includes fighters like Carlos Molina, Bryan Rose, Demetrius Andrade, Vanes Martirosyan, Akinori Watanabe and two men who fight each other this Saturday.
Those two men are Austin Trout (26-1, 14), a former WBA Light Middleweight champion, and Cuban Erislandy Lara (18-1-2, 12), the current WBA interim Light Middleweight champion. Unsurprisingly, having read they have both have links the WBA title, it should come as no shock that this bout will be for the vacant WBA title, allowing Lara the chance to upgrade his title and allowing Trout to regain his old belt.
This is, on paper, one of those true 50-50 match ups. This is reflected in the odds which narrowly favour Trout at this time of writing., though it genuinely nip and tuck ion the odds.
In terms of the fighters they are both very talented boxers, who can counter excellently, neither is amazing on the front foot but bother are great pure-boxers.
Lara is probably the better all-rounder and the better man on the front foot. He's very dangerous southpaw who has questionable durability having twice been down against Alfredo Angulo though did show a fighters heart to come back in that fight and eventually stop Angulo really messing up his eye in the process. In terms of what he has over Trout he definitely seems to hit harder and also probably has the edge in terms of speed and over-all experience having previously had a very long amateur record.
Staying on Lara for a second, many feel he should have won the only fight he lost, a controversial decision against Paul Williams, but then again many felt he was beaten by Carlos Molina. Factoring both of them in his record should probably stand at 19-1-1.
Trout on the other hand suffered his only loss last time out dropping a decision to Saul Alvarez. Although the judges had that fight all but decided after 8 rounds Trout was certainly not dominated and gave Canelo one of his toughest bouts. What Trout has proven capable of is controlling the distance with his jab and movement, and although he doesn't tend to score many stoppages he does seem to get opponents respect when he connects.
Unfortunately for Trout he's giving away several inches in reach here and with both men having capable speed this will see his jab neutralised by that of Lara. If the jab of Trout's can't help him establish distance and his power can't earn him the respect of Lara then this will be a very hard to win. I think Trout will try hard and try several game plans but at the end of it he'll be a clear loser at the end of the day. His effort however will see him given another shot somewhere down the line and he'll remain relevant despite a loss.
Prediction-Lara UD12
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