Lara Willing To Drop Down For Berto vs Ortiz Winner

By Ryan Burton

 

The Boxing Lab welcomed junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara to the most recent edition of BoxingScene.com's official audio show.  Lara has been inactive since losing a highly controversial decision to Paul Williams this past July.  After striking out in attempts to land a big fight, Lara is scheduled to return on February 11th against Ronald Hearns on the Victor Ortiz-Andre Berto undercard.  Both of those fights along with Gary Russell Jr. versus an opponent to be determined will be televised by Showtime.

 

Lara's manager, Luis DeCubas Jr., said that they jumped on the opportunity to fight on the card in the hopes that a win will lead to a fight with WBC junior middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez who is scheduled to return either on April 21st or May 5th.

 

"It is a great opportunity to fight on the Berto-Ortiz card. We can show what we can do versus Hearns and go from there. We think Golden Boy will turn us right back around in another fight. We will be ready to fight (Canelo) Alvarez right after."

 

With DeCubas serving as his interpreter, Lara, who has fought his entire pro career at 154 pounds or higher, revealed that he would also would be willing to go down to welterweight for the right fight.

 

"We would go down to 147 for the right opportunity.  We would go down to fight the Berto-Ortiz winner at 147 and then look to fight Mayweather," stated Lara.

 

Lara closed his interview with The Boxing Lab by saying that the fight he wants most is a clash with middleweight king Sergio Martinez.  The Cuban fighter said that he wants to fight the best fighters out there and considers Martinez to be near the top of the list.

 

"The fight I want the most is Sergio Martinez. He is the best fighter out there and we want to fight the best. We also want to fight Canelo but Canelo obviously is nowhere near Martinez's level," stated Lara.