By Peter Lim

The sport of boxing has hit an era of world title unification bouts. The latest comes in the form of a 154-pound showdown between WBA, IBO titleholder Erislandy Lara (25-2-2, 14 KOs) and IBF titleholder Jared Hurd (21-0, 15 KOs) on April 7 at the Hard Rock Café and Casino in Las Vegas.

While their records might not seem that far apart, Lara, 34, is by far the more experienced fighter on account of the level of opposition he has taken on. Hurd, 27, by contrast, has youth on his side. Lara has held is title since 2014 and defended it five times while Hurd won his a little over a year ago with one title defense.

“I’ve been waiting for this fight with my eye on the division,” Lara said through interpreter Mike Alfaro.

In Hurd, Lara faces a tough aggressive fighter who comes on strong in deep waters. In both his title fights, Hurd stopped Tony Harrison and Austin Trout in the ninth and tenth rounds respectively after evenly contested early and middle rounds.

“I don’t have any problem with that,” Lara said. “I know what I’m doing.”

Lara’s sparring partner Craig Callaghan (17-1, 7 KOs) thinks Hurd’s style is custom made for Lara. Standing the same height as Hurd at six-foot-one, Callaghan was brought in to mimic Hurd’s size and long punches.

“Jared is a tall fighter. He likes to come forward,” Callaghan said. “If he starts to chase Lara down there’s not much he can do. Lara can make you miss, he can counter and he can box all day long. He’s seen a thousand guys like Jared Hurd before. He could give Jared Hurd an absolute boxing clinic on Saturday night.

“I’d say Lara wins convincingly on points, or depending how he uses that left hand and he catches Jared Hurd, it could be lights out.”

Lara is second to none in terms of defense and ring IQ, Callaghan added.

“He’s so efficient with his punches,” Callaghan said. “He’s just so experienced. He sees everything coming and he knows when you’re going to attack and he knows how to read opponents. There’s nobody better at that. He’s extremely hard to land a clean shot on.”

Trainer Ronnie Shields concurs.

“Lara loves guys that come forward,” Shields said. “It suits his style. It’s a tough fight but it’s one that we can win.”

Although Lara’s goal has always been to unify all four junior middleweight belts, he will be willing to put that endeavor on hold and put on a few pounds to step in against Gennady Golovkin, now that Golovkin’s rematch against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is in jeopardy due to Canelo’s two positive tests for clenbuterol. It will unlikely be on the scheduled May 5 date, though.

“We will take a vacation first and then we’ll be ready (for Golovkin),” Lara said.

At 34, Lara wouldn’t speculate as to how much longer his career will last.

“As long as my body is still okay and I’m in shape, I’ll keep doing it.” Lara said.