{"id":302743,"date":"2025-12-07T06:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/302743\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T06:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T06:04:12","slug":"personal-ties-prevent-erislandy-lara-from-middleweight-unification-bout-with-carlos-adames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/302743\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal ties prevent Erislandy Lara from middleweight unification bout with Carlos Adames"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erislandy Lara<\/a> considers Carlos Adames<\/a> the second-best middleweight in boxing.
The WBA 160-pound champion felt that way \u201ca 100 percent\u201d before Janibek Alimkhanuly<\/a> tested positive for Meldonium, a banned substance, and cost Lara an opportunity to add the IBF and WBO belts to his resume Saturday night. Unfortunately for Lara, he won\u2019t fight Adames, either, because they\u2019re both prepared by Ismael Salas at the veteran Cuban trainer\u2019s gym in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no plans to fight each other,\u201d Lara, a Cuban southpaw, told The Ring. \u201cWe\u2019re train at the same gym, with the same trainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their familiarity convinced Lara that Adames is better than Alimkhanuly and any other middleweight besides him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI train with him,\u201d Lara said. \u201cI see it every day, the fact that he\u2019s so skilled, the determination that he has. There\u2019s no doubt in my mind about where he stands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dominican Republic\u2019s Adames (24-1-1, 18 KOs) is The Ring\u2019s second-ranked contender for its unclaimed middleweight title.<\/p>\n

Adames, the WBC champ, hasn\u2019t fought since his suspect split draw with England\u2019s Hamzah Sheeraz<\/a> (22-0-1, 18 KOs) on February 22 in Saudi Arabia. He was ordered at the WBC\u2019s annual convention this week in Bangkok, Thailand, to make a mandated defense next against Kazakhstan\u2019s Meiirim Nursultanov<\/a> (20-0, 11 KOs).<\/p>\n

Kazakhstan\u2019s Alimkhanuly (17-0, 12 KOs) is ranked No. 1 by The Ring.<\/p>\n

Lara, a former WBA 154-pound champ, isn\u2019t listed in The Ring\u2019s top 10 because he hasn\u2019t fought since September 2024, when he stopped Danny Garcia<\/a> after the ninth round in Las Vegas.
Lara, 42, will end a 14-month layoff when he defends his title versus Venezuela\u2019s Johan Gonzalez<\/a> (36-4, 34 KOs) on Saturday night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Gonzalez replaced Alimkhanuly<\/a> on less than one week\u2019s notice once VADA revealed he’d failed a performance-enhancing drug test<\/a>.
The bout between Lara and Gonzalez will be part of the Lamont Roach-Isaac Cruz pay-per-view undercard. Premier Boxing Champions\u2019 four-fight show <\/a>is set to begin at 8 p.m. ET and costs $74.99 in the United States.<\/p>\n

Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erislandy Lara considers Carlos Adames the second-best middleweight in boxing.The WBA 160-pound champion felt that way \u201ca 100…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302744,"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-302743","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\/302743","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=302743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}