On Friday, January 13, 2017, Erislandy Lara (24-2-2, 14 KOs) scored a fourth-round knockout victory against Yuri Foreman (24-3, 10 KOs) to defend his WBA Super Welterweight title at the Hialeah Park Racing & Casino in Hialeah, Florida.
The fight will be televised on Spike TV in the U.S.
Lara, a 33-year-old native of Cuba, made the fifth defense of his WBA title against Foreman, a 36-year-old resident of New York.
Lara is considered to be one of the best 154-pounders in the world, but his style is unpleasing to most fans and Foreman was hardly a worthy opponent.
Foreman’s better days were almost ten years ago when he held the WBA title briefly after defeating Daniel Santos in 2009.
Soon after, Foreman lost to Miguel Cotto in his first defense in June of 2010, partly due to a knee injury that prevented him from fighting at his best.
After the Cotto knockout, Forman had been steadily re-building his resume, but it reached a terrible zenith tonight has he became Lara’s latest victim.
However, though one is used to seeing Lara cruise to a unanimous decision victory from Lara, Yoreman was stopped and dropped early by the Cuban fighter.
In Round 3, Foreman hit the canvas, but it appears as if he had tripped on Lara’s foot. Nevertheless, the referee ruled it a knockdown.
By Round 4, however, it did not matter. As Foreman lunged forward, something he had done several times throughout the fight, Lara landed a perfect counter left uppercut that stiffened Foreman’s legs and sent him straight to the canvas.
Foreman did his best to get back to as feet, and it even seemed as if he had once again injured his knee. However, Foreman’s legs were gone. He was done/
Samuel Burgos called a stop to the fight at 1:47 of Round 4.
Lara retained his status in the division, but one hopes that he’ll take a tougher fight next time around. Who do you think he will take on next?
Check out the knockout below:
