{"id":248742,"date":"2025-11-07T05:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248742\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T05:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T05:35:11","slug":"i-dont-think-its-gonna-be-a-difficult-bout-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/248742\/","title":{"rendered":"I Don\u2019t Think It\u2019s Gonna Be A Difficult Bout For Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even at his advanced age, Erislandy Lara<\/a> remains one of boxing\u2019s best middleweights.
The 42-year-old Lara\u2019s legs aren\u2019t what they once were, but the cerebral Cuban changed his style to adapt to physical limitations and still dominated Danny Garcia<\/a> in his last fight. The WBA 160-pound champion is the only opponent to stop Garcia, a two-division champion who lost by technical knockout when he declined to continue after the ninth round in September 2024.<\/p>\n

Lara has boxed only three times in the past 4\u00bd years. The skillful southpaw\u2019s inactivity aside, Lara hasn\u2019t lost since Jarrett Hurd edged him by split decision in their action-packed junior middleweight match in April 2018 and has faced a respectable list of former champions.<\/p>\n

Janibek Alimkhanuly appreciates Lara\u2019s willingness to fight him December 6<\/a> in San Antonio and respects all Lara has accomplished as a pro and amateur. The strong southpaw just doesn\u2019t think Lara (31-3-3, 19 KOs) will test him the way Lara\u2019s resume and experience suggest he can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my past I fought a lot of guys who was [left-handed] in my amateur and pro [careers],\u201d Alimkhanuly said during a virtual press conference recently. \u201cEven when I was an amateur boxer, I was watching a lot of fighting already in the pros. So, I know his style, I know what he can do, I know what he cannot do. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s gonna be a difficult bout for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whereas Lara dropped decisions to Hurd, Canelo Alvarez<\/a> and Paul Williams during his 17-year pro career, Kazakhstan\u2019s Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) hasn\u2019t even come close to losing since he turned pro nine years ago. Alimkhanuly, who owns the IBF and WBO middleweight titles, is also 10 years younger than Lara and ranked No. 1 among The Ring<\/a>\u2019s top 10 contenders for an unclaimed championship.<\/p>\n

Lara nevertheless assured Alimkhanuly during the aforementioned press conference that their fight for three middleweight crowns won\u2019t be nearly as easy as his confident opponent seems to think.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, all I have to say for Janibek is like, look, you can think whatever you want,\u201d Lara said. \u201cLet\u2019s see on December 6th if you\u2019re ready for what\u2019s coming. Let\u2019s see if it\u2019s as easy as you think it\u2019s gonna be, because you\u2019re gonna be in for a big surprise \u2013 I can tell you that.\u201d<\/p>\n

FanDuel lists Alimkhanuly as almost a 5-1 favorite to beat Lara in the 12-round co-feature of a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view show Amazon\u2019s Prime Video will distribute in the United States ($74.99). The winner would need only the WBC belt held by the Dominican Republic\u2019s Carlos Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) to become undisputed middleweight champion.<\/p>\n

Lamont Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, will meet Mexico City\u2019s Issac Cruz<\/a> (28-3-1, 18 KOs) in the 12-round main event that night at Frost Bank Center, the home arena of the NBA\u2019s Spurs. Cruz will defend his WBC interim 140-pound title against Roach, the WBA 130-pound champion who will make his debut at the junior welterweight limit.Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even at his advanced age, Erislandy Lara remains one of boxing\u2019s best middleweights.The 42-year-old Lara\u2019s legs aren\u2019t what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,6842,6836,6841,6840,6834,6102,6837,6838,6839,6835,6588,6847,6846,6830,6828,6829,6844,6831,6827,6848,6843,101,6845,6826,6833,56,54,55,6832],"class_list":{"0":"post-248742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-schedule","18":"tag-boxing-videos","19":"tag-boxing-results","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-unitedkingdom","37":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}