As always, a huge Cuban crowd came out tonight to support their beloved Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara at Hialeah Park Racing and Casino in Miami. With constant chants of Cuba and a heavy dose of Pitbull background music, the party got started early. In the main event the packed house was treated with the super welterweight world champion Lara (24-2-2, 14 KOs) dismantling former world champion Yuri Foreman (34-3, 10 KOs) to retain his WBA strap for the fifth time live on Spike TV. The consensus best fighter at 154-pounds, Lara did his thing in controlling distance and pace early while easily out boxing the former world champion Yuri Foreman. Foreman, an ordained rabbi was never in the fight and had a hard time catching one of boxing’s slickest boxers. In round three after Lara landed a couple shots and an entanglement of feet, a knockdown was incorrectly scored for Lara. It was a mood point as in round four Lara put a left uppercut deep into Foremans midsection that dispensed the Brooklyn-based native of Brelarus Foreman on the canvas with no hopes of beating the count.
The live televised coverage kicked off with former super middleweight world champion Anthony “The Dog” Dirrell (30-1-1, 24 KOs) battling Hungary’s Norbert Nemesapati (24-5, 17 KOs) in a 10-round bout. Dirrell set an early pace moving Nemesapati back with strong right hands and body shots. The Hungarian was able to create a couple occasional early exchanges, but Derrell’s power was too much as he was visibly breaking Nemesapati. By the third round it was a seek and destroy mission as Dirrell hunted his prey and landed a variety of uppercuts, body shots, right hands, hooks, and I may have seen him throw the kitchen sink at one point. Dirrell virtually beat Nemesapati into a submission as he felt no need to come out for round seven for more of what was a constant in the fight, and that was a clear show of a difference of skill level.
Dirrell has seen more adversity than most throughout his career as his time in boxing has been seriously jeopardized twice, first in December 2006 when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and was sidelined for 20 months and again in May 2012 when he broke his lower left leg and left wrist in a motorcycle accident. The Flint, Michigan-native never let that hold him down as he kept winning fights and working his way up the professional ranks. In 2014 he won his first championship when he defeated defending champion Sakio Bika. His road back to a 168-pound title has seen him dominate former title challengers Marco Antonio Rubio last September and Caleb Truax in April.
Juan Carlos Payano 18-1 (9KO) put on a display of “all things boxing” on his way to a TKO win over Isao Carranza 15-8-1(5KO) with the end coming at 1:16 of the 7th round. Payano was coming off of the first loss of his career and a super close majority decision loss at the hands of Rau’shee Warren in June of 2016.
Early results from Hialeah Park: Premier Boxings Lara vs Foreman Undercard results
Dennis ‘The Surgeon” Galarza improved to 14-2(8KO) with a TKO victory over Edgardo Rivera 7-5-2-(5KO) to open Warriors Boxing’s Lara v Foreman from Hialeah Park in. From the opening jab Galarza, from Orlando surgically dissected Rivera with shots from every angle and finally into submission when Sam Burgos finally stepped in and stopped the action in the third round.
Light heavyweight Robert Daniels Jr 2-0(2KO) made easy work out of easy work Antonio Alicea 0-2. Daniels wins by KO in just 25 seconds in the first round knocking out a very timid and out of shape Alicea.
Someone’s O had to go when Miguel Cruz 14-0 (11KO) faced off with Alex Martin 13-1(5KO) in a battle of unbeaten’s. Martin established an early lead with precise straight left hands, slick distance, smart defense, and counter-punching. Cruz pressured to offset the slick counter puncher making for an entertaining tactical fight. The split decision victory was for Miguel Cruz.
Photo Credit Amie DiDia
