By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Erislandy Lara wanted an immediate rematch with Jarrett Hurd.

The WBA ordered one after their extremely competitive, 12-round, 154-pound title unification fight almost 11 months ago in Las Vegas. Lara isn’t surprised Hurd hasn’t agreed to step into the ring with him again, not after their intense battle at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino last April 7.

Hurd’s decision to move in a different direction left Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs) to settle for a shot at a version of the WBA title he lost to Hurd. The 35-year-old Cuban southpaw will challenge Argentina’s Brian Castano (15-0, 11 KOs) for the WBA world super welterweight title Saturday night in a main event Showtime will televise from Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

As he heads toward what figures to be a difficult fight against the younger, strong Castano, Lara admonished Hurd.

“Hurd’s a big coward,” Lara told BoxingScene.com. “He doesn’t want the rematch. As tough and as big as they say he is, when I look at him I still see Hurd as a little boy, mentally. I know he’s not willing to go to those extreme measures again, the way I’m willing to do it. If Hurd had any heart as a champ, he would want the rematch because all great fighters who have close fights do rematches.

“Whether it was Hearns or Duran, or you go back when Ali fought Frazier three times, when you go back in the history books, when there’s close fights, champions fight again to clear up the story. In this case, Hurd and his team know that he didn’t win that fight and another fight would be a lot worse for him.”

Hurd (23-0, 16 KOs), of Accokeek, Maryland, scored a 12th-round knockdown of Lara, which was the difference in their title fight. Lara, who previously lost a split decision to Canelo Alvarez and a majority decision to Paul Williams, feels he has been saddled with another undeserved defeat.

Two judges – Glenn Feldman (114-113) and Dave Moretti (114-113) – scored their fight for Hurd. The other judge, Burt Clements, had it 114-113 for Lara.

The Boxing Writers Association of America later voted Hurd-Lara its “Fight of the Year” for 2018. Lara wants an opportunity to win that award again.

“I ran this division for a long time and after another debatable decision,” Lara said, “a young champion should’ve wanted to jump back in the ring to prove that this old, little man shouldn’t have been fighting him like this. The fact that Hurd won’t fight me or won’t even mention my name shows that Hurd got away with a gift in that one. Knockdown or no knockdown, it’s about winning rounds. I won more rounds than Hurd. One point’s only one point. You can’t win a fight off of one point.”

As tough as it has been to accept his loss to Hurd, Lara is focused on dealing Castano his first professional defeat and securing another title unification fight. He hasn’t boxed since Hurd edged him, yet Lara felt fresh and sharp as he prepared for Castano.

“One-hundred percent, there should’ve been a rematch,” Lara said. “The WBA ordered a rematch because they weren’t in agreement with the actual decision. But, you know, as business in boxing goes, Hurd and his team refused to fight me and I can’t force no one to fight me. So, I had to move on and find the next biggest fight, which was Castano.”

Showtime will televise the Hurd-Castano fight as the main event of a three-bout broadcast scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

In Showtime’s opener, Panama’s Bryan De Gracia (24-1-1, 20 KOs) and Mexico’s Eduardo Ramirez (21-1-3, 8 KOs, 1 NC) will go at it in a 12-round, 126-pound WBA elimination match. Cuban heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz (30-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC) and Germany’s Christian Hammer (24-5, 14 KOs) also are set to square off in the 10-round, co-featured fight.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.