WBA Champion Lara beats down Zavek on ESPN
Lara
‘CUBA’ ‘CUBA’ ‘CUBA’ ‘CUBA’ with a heavy spanish accent was the chant coming from a soggy and packed Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida tonight as Miami’s favorite son Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara destroyed former champion Jan Zevek with a third round stoppage. From the opening bell Lara showed he was the champion in his fair test opposite a faded and worn former champion.
Live on ESPN, Premier Boxing Championships provided a night of boxing in Hialeah Florida where Lara successfully defended his WBA super welterweight title for the fourth time and retained his IBO strap. Lara did it by winning every second of the fight and knocking the Solovian off balance with straight hard left hand shots setting up that inevitable “wait for it” moment. In the final seconds of round 2 Lara landed a straight left that wobbled Zavek who was happy to hear the bell 6 seconds later. The odd end came at :41 of round three as Lara set up another straight left off of a throw away hook that snapped Zavek’s head back so far he could have counted stars if it wasn’t raining. Lara actually took a step back after the shot at which time Zavek oddly turned away with a no mas limp stiff arm towards the Champion. Zavek complained early of a shoulder injury however the shoulder appeared to be fine, its this sports writer’s opinion he just said “Ni? Ve?” The Cuban Champion improved to (22-2-2, 13 KO) and is willing to face anyone from 154-160 as quoted in a post fight interview. “Canelo doesn’t want to see me because he knows I beat him in the first fight,” Lara said. “And GGG [Golovkin] can come get it if he wants as well. I’m ready to fight anybody at 154 to 160 pounds. Bring on the best.”
Emmanuel Rodriguez 14-0(10KO) retained his WBA Fedelatin bantamweight title and WBC Latino bantamweight title with a seventh round TKO over Dominican boxer Elicer Aquino 17-2-1(11KO). Rodriguez knocked Aquino down in round three and around the ring for the rest of the fight while knocking his mouthpiece out several times throughout the fight. Sam Burgos took a point from the Dominican and Rodriguez went ahead and finished it himself by speeding his punches up with combinations to a nice end at 2:44 of round seven where Burgos stepped in to save the Dominican from further punishment.
Undefeated Heavyweight John Wesley Nofire improved to 19-0(15KO) with a stoppage over once promising Cuban Yasmany Consuegra who lost his third in a row to drop to 17-3(14KO). Nofire came out with a fast jab early to start the fight and try to establish pace and distance. The Cuban consistently fell in while punching the 6’6” Oklahoma native which caused a lot tangles early on. Nofire got a better sense of his distance in round three and started coming underneath while the Cuban fell in which gave him enough room to punch and this is where he hurt Consuegra. A great flurry late in round three had Consuegra caught in his own corner taking a beating by the big powerful Oklahoman nearly prompting a stoppage only to be saved by the bell. However the Cuban corner felt that was enough and waved the fight off between rounds giving the big man from Oklahoma a TKO win officially at 2:59 of round four.
Super Welterweight Daquan Arnett 15-1(9KO) looked powerful with a strong performance in a first round knockout win over once heralded Cuban prospect and amateur star Yudel Johnson 17-3(9KO). The end came at 2:47 of the very first round.
Super Lightweight Jose Quezada easily improved to 9-0(6KO) with a 2nd round KO win over Daniel Lorenzana 4-7-1(2KO).
In an entertaining bout between two South Florida welterweights Jeff Souffrant from Davie FL and Gregory Moore from Miami, FL battled to the final bell which Souffrant earned a unanimous decision win to sharpen his record to 2-1, where Moore fell to 1-1.
