Twenty seven year old super welterweight contender Erickson Lubin has been in the limelight ever since he signed a promotional pact with Mike Tyson in 2013. 

By 2017, Lubin was already challenging Jermell Charlo for a 154-pound title and promptly got punished and put away with a one-round knockout.  

“The Hammer” rebuilt himself after his first career loss with wins against Jeison Rosario, Terrell Gausha, Nathaniel Gallimore, Ishe Smith, and Jorge Cota. Then, in a fight of the year contender in April 2022, Lubin suffered his second defeat, a ninth-round stoppage loss to Sebastian Fundora.

Although Lubin was ahead on two of three scorecards, with a third scorecard having it even, he was fading late, and his face was getting reconfigured. 

Lubin (25-2, 18 KOs) returned in June and rebounded with a fifth-round stoppage victory against Luis Arias, and the win has now positioned him with a clash against Jesus Ramos Jr. (20-0, 16 KOs), set to take place Sept. 30 as the co-main event of the card headlined by Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Showtime pay per view. 

“I was fast tracked. I'm ready to seize the moment,” Lubin told BoxingScene.com in an interview. “All I want to do is just win. Ramos is a helluva fighter. I tip my hat off to him for the Joey Spencer performance [and seventh round stoppage win in March]. But I'm no Joey Spencer, to be honest. It's going to be a great night of boxing. I'm looking to seize the moment. I'm extra motivated. I'm training really hard. Sept. 30 will be one of my best performances.”  

In the Fundora fight, Lubin was dropped in the second round and returned the favor by knocking down Fundora in the seventh before the fight was stopped in the ninth. Fundora landed 106 more punches than Lubin (255-of-706 to 149-of-368) in the fight, according to CompuBox.

Lubin opened up about what went wrong in the fight, admitting that he needed to do a better job staying composed through the fire, sticking to the game plan, and not letting the outside noise affect him. 

“I felt like in the Fundora fight I let a lot play with me on the outside, getting into my head, battling mental health issues,” said Lubin. “A lot of fighters go through mental health issues and pull out of the fight. When I was going through my own mental health issues, I actually was going into the fire, like, this is how I am going to find my happiness. There were a lot of issues going into that fight. Now I tune out the noise when it's time to handle business. 

“I'm here to dominate. I have one of the best skill sets in the world. I'm going to show it on Sept. 30.” 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.