Tag Archives: Lucas Matthysse

Erislandy Lara to Defend WBA Middleweight Title Against Danny Garcia

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Erislandy Lara is going on the defensive…

The 41-year-old Cuban professional boxer will defend his WBA middleweight title against Danny Garcia on September 14 in Las Vegas, PBC has announced.

Erislandy LaraThe fight will serve as the pay-per-view co-feature on the Canelo Alvarez–Edgar Berlanga card.

Lara-Garcia was originally slated for August 2023 and then was scheduled for the fall.

However, the bout never materialized as PBC network partner Showtime ceased sports programming at the end of the year.

When the fight was planned last year, it was set to take place at a 155-pound catchweight.

Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs) is coming off a second-round TKO victory over Michael Zerafa in March.

A former 154-pound champion, Lara’s résumé includes a controversial decision loss to Paul Williams, a split-decision defeat to Alvarez and a victory over Austin Trout.

Lara is ESPN’s No. 6 middleweight. His split-decision defeat by Jarrett Hurd in a 154-pound title unification was ESPN’s 2018 Fight of the Year. Lara’s draw with Brian Castano the following year was one of the best fights of 2019.

Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs) is a former unified 140-pound champion and 147-pound titleholder. He rose to prominence with an upset fourth-round TKO victory over Amir Khan in 2012 and followed with a dominant victory over Lucas Matthysse the following year.

His lengthy résumé includes wins over Erik Morales, Zab Judah and Lamont Peterson, along with tight decision defeats to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

The 36-year-old Philadelphian made his 154-pound debut in July 2022 with a majority decision win over Jose Benavidez Jr. He hasn’t competed since.

That was Garcia’s first fight since a December 2020 decision loss to Errol Spence Jr.

Danny Garcia Agrees to Fight Jose Benavidez Jr. in Junior Middleweight Bout

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Danny Garcia is preparing to chase down a title in a third weight class.

The 34-year-old Puerto Rican boxer, a former two-division champion, has agreed to fight Jose Benavidez Jr. in a junior middleweight bout on July 30 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, according to ESPN.

Danny GarciaThe PBC on Showtime main event will mark Garcia’s debut at 154 pounds after he captured titles at 140 and 147.

The Philadelphian fighter hasn’t boxed since a December 2020 loss to Errol Spence Jr. in a welterweight title fight. The 19-month layoff is the longest of Garcia’s career.

Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) was a unified junior welterweight champion who owns wins over Lucas Matthysse, Amir Khan, Zab Judah and Erik Morales. His other two losses came against Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman in 147-pound title fights.

Benavidez (27-1-1, 18 KOs) suffered the lone loss of his pro career in 2018, a 12th-round TKO loss to Terence Crawford in a 147-pound title fight. The 30-year-old from Phoenix has competed only once since then, a November draw with the unheralded Francisco Emanuel Torres.

The brother of former super middleweight champion David Benavidez, Jose was still dealing with the effects of a gunshot wound to his right leg suffered in August 2016 when he fought Crawford.

Soto Defeats John Molina Jr. for His Seventh Straight Victory

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Make that seven in a row for Humberto Soto…

The 34-year-old Mexican professional boxer, a former WBC Interim Featherweight, WBC Super Featherweight, and WBC Lightweight champion, won a unanimous decision against John Molina Jr. (27-5, 22 KOs) in a fight filled with low blows.

Humberto Soto

Soto (65-8-2, 35 KOs) won on scores of 96-91, 95-92 and 95-92 in a fight in which he was docked a point for a low blow by referee Jay Nady and Molina lost two.

“I felt very good in the ring but it hurt me when he hit me below belt,” Soto said. “But I was able to suck it up.”

In the fourth round, Molina nailed Soto with a bad low blow and he went down. Nady gave Soto time to recover and issued a hard warning to Molina, telling him to keep his punches up. But he couldn’t.

Molina continued to stray low with body shots, landing low blows that knocked Soto to the mat in the sixth and seventh rounds, and Nady docked him one point each time.

In the eighth round, Soto landed his own low blow that sent Molina to his knees in agony, but Nady did not take a point. Each man continued to target the body in a grinding affair, although they hugged each other after tapping gloves to begin the final round.

And then moments later Soto nailed Molina low again and Nady took a point from him.

“I feel he had more low blows. They shouldn’t have taken two points from me,” Molina said. “He’s a veteran and did dirty stuff in there. Back to the drawing board for me.”

Molina lost his second fight in a row. He had been trying to rebound from an 11th-round knockout loss to Lucas Matthysse in April — one of the most action-packed fights of the year in which Molina knocked Matthysse down twice and was dropped three times himself before being knocked out.

Soto won his seventh fight in a row since Matthysse knocked him out in 2012.