By Ryan Burton
Erislandy Lara visited with us on The Boxing Lab, BoxingScene.com's official audio show this past Tuesday. Lara faces Ronald Hearns tonight on Showtime's latest edition of their ShoBox series.
The fight was originally scheduled to take place in February but was postponed when Andre Berto tore a biceps muscle which pushed back his rematch against Victor Ortiz till June. Lara doesn't expect the layoff to cause any problems.
"We were training well and then it got cancelled. We took two weeks off and then got back right into it. In reality we had two great training camps," Lara told The Boxing Lab.
The Cuban said that he isn't looking ahead and that all of his focus is on Hearns. He also said that he is confident that he will finally land a big fight soon.
"We have Hearns Friday night and then we will get a big fight after. Right now we just have to stay focused and the big fight will come," said a confident Lara.
Promoter Lou Dibella also paid a recent visit to The Boxing Lab and said that if Lara gets past Hearns that he would consider him as a possible opponent for middleweight king Sergio Martinez. Lara has appeared on Boxingscene numerous times campaigning for a fight against Martinez so I asked him for his reaction to DiBella's comments.
"First there is no doubt that we will beat Hearns," Lara stated. The natural junior middleweight seemed skeptical that DiBella would actually make the fight. "We hope that it's (our next fight) Martinez or another big name. We are happy they mentioned us. We will see if it becomes reality. Right now its just talk. They say no one wants to fight him at 154 or 160. I will go to 160 to fight him," Lara revealed.
You can listen to the interview in its entirety by clicking here: http://tobtr.com/s/3024637
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com Follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter and tune in to The Boxing Lab, Boxingscene's official audio on Tuesdays. The show is hosted by Ernie Gabion, Luis Sandoval and Ryan Burton