By David "Los Gatos" Rosenberg

Junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara has issued a response to some of the recent comments from WBA champion Austin Trout, which the boxer made in a recent interview with BoxingScene.com. Lara, expected to return in January as part of a doubleheader with Paul Williams on Showtime, is ready to fight Trout next, and disputes any claims that he turned down a title shot.

"I turned you down? Why would I turn you down and fight Paul Williams who's 100 times better than you? You are a regular world champ fighting on ShoBox. Please get it right, my matchmaker Eric Gomez [of Golden Boy Promotions] on several occasions tried to make the fight with you and your promoter turning it down. If you say otherwise here you go again - here's my open challenge to Austin "Fraud" Trout," Lara replied.