Photo by Stephanie Trapp/Showtime Boxing
The boxing year of 2017 begins this weekend with two important cards.
On Friday, January 13, 2017, Erislandy Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs) returns to the ring against Yuri Foreman (24-2, 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, will be attempting 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 he will likely cruise to a unanimous decision against Foreman, who once 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 has been steadily re-building his resume, which will reach its zenith tonight against Lara.
Foreman does not have knockout power and his boxing skills are nowhere near that of Lara’s so fans should not expect an exciting fight.
In the co-main event, Anthony Dirrell will take on Norbert Nemesapati in a Super Middleweight fight. Check out our results page for results on the entire card.
Jack and DeGale to See Who’s Best at 168
The following day on Saturday, January 14, 2017, Badou Jack (20-1-2, 12 KOs) will take on James DeGale (23-1, 14 KOs) to unify the WBC and IBF titles at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The fight will be televised via Showtime Championship Boxing.
The fight is the most important fight in the Super Middleweight division because it features two of the very best titleholders in the division.
DeGale is sa 30-year-old Olympic gold medalist who became the first native of the U.K. to win a Gold medal and a world title.
DeGale won the vacant IBF title against Andre Dirrell in May of 2015, and he has since then defended it two times.
Jack is a 33-year-old native of Sweden who won the WBC title in April of 2015 against Anthony Dirrell. Though suffering a devastating knockout loss a year prior to his title win, Jack has proven to be one of the best 168-pounders in the world.
Also on the card are Jose Pedraza and Gervonta Davis, who will fight for Pedraza’s 130-pound IBF title. Amanda Serrano will defend her WBO Super Bantamweight title against Yazmin Rivas, while Middleweight rising contender Ievgen Khytrov will take on Immanuwel Aleem.
Make sure to check out our results page for results on the entire Jack-DeGale card.
What do you think of this weekend’s action? Let us know in the comment section below.
