Erislandy Lara vs. Yuri Foreman: The first notable fight card of 2017 will air this Friday on Spike. That card will be headlined by a 12-round title fight between one of the best junior middleweights in the sport, Erislandy Lara (23-2-2, 13 KO) and Yuri Foreman (34-2, 10 KO) who is now an ordained Orthodox Rabbi. On the line will be Lara's WBA junior middleweight title, a title he has successfully defended three times already. For Foreman this will be his first title fight since 2010 when he faced off against Miguel Cotto in Yankee Stadium. Foreman suffered a bad knee injury in that fight that limited his mobility but despite showing a tremendous amount of heart, he eventually succumbed to a Cotto left hook to the body that would end the fight. Since then however, Foreman has had a brief two-year retirement and hasn't faced a notable opponent or gone more than eight rounds. During that stretch Lara has faced many notable opponents and while his career record shows two losses they both come with asterisks. His first career loss came against Paul Williams in what had to be one of the worst decision of the past 10 years and his other loss to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez could have easily gone his way. Lara is a slick southpaw from the Cuban school of boxing. He likes to work behind a busy jab that he will follow with an accurate straight left hand and while he doesn't use it a ton the right hook is also a good weapon for Lara. Lara's best weapon though is his defense. He has excellent reflexes and legs and often frustrates opponents with his movement but at times he does get on his bike a bit too much. This fight should resemble more of a chess match than brawl because Foreman is also a defensive minded slick fighter. Foreman is an orthodox fighter who, like Lara, works behind a busy jab that he brings a solid right hand behind. Foreman is all about lateral movement and his feet are always moving, something that has frustrated many opponents during his career. In a fight involving two defensive boxers the bout could come down to who is the busier man. However, in this fight current form will also play a big role and currently Lara is in better form and has faced better opponents recently. While Foreman won't ever taste the canvas, Lara will do enough to stop him standing in the 10th round.
Anthony Dirrell vs. Norbert Nemesapati: The other fight on Friday's Spike card will feature former champion and current contender Anthony Dirrell (29-1-1, 23 KO). Dirrell will take on the relatively unknown Hungarian fighter Norbert Nemesapati (24-4, 17 KO). Without disrespecting Nemesapati, fans had to sit through many of these PBC orchestrated mismatches in 2016 and hopefully that trend won't continue too far into 2017. Following a close 2015 loss to Badou Jack, Dirrell went on to win two fights in a row, including a first round knockout of Caleb Truax in his last fight. Meanwhile Nemesapati fought seven times in 2016, going 5-2 but his two losses came against the only two notble opponents he faced. While he is riding a three fight win streak those three wins came against opponents with records of 2-62-2, 0-6-2, and 2-7 so it isn't exactly a stretch to say Nemesapati probably isn't ready for Dirrell. Dirrell is an orthodox fighter with good pop on his punches and he likes to counter opponents. Dirrell has a solid jab followed by an excellent straight right hand and the Flint Michigan native also has a strong left hook. While Nemesapati is also an orthodox fighter he definitely lacks the type of power that Dirrell carries. Nemesapati likes to work behind his jab and he will stick that punch to the body but often times he seems very reluctant to even throw a punch and spends a lot of time circling the ring without mounting much of an offensive attack. This fight should be and will be all about Dirrell. Dirrell is in a higher class than Nemesapati is and that will be abundantly clear come Friday night when Dirrell stops Nemesapati in the sixth round.
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