Chicago’s UIC Pavilion hosts the latest “Premier Boxing Champions” broadcast this Friday night with a card headlined by WBA World Super Welterweight Champion Erislandy Lara faces Delvin Rodriguez in his first title defense. Lara comes in a massive (-5000) favorite over the veteran Rodriguez (+2500). The bout is scheduled for 12 rounds, however no over/under is posted for it as of yet. Lara is one of the most technically sound fighters in the world, but he has failed to catch on in terms of public appeal. He did score a big fight earlier when he faced Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, and he lost a narrow split decision. Lara has been calling for a re-match but Alvarez is likely not looking back. Lara’s confidence is built on his amateur background where he was developed in his native Cuba at the highest level. Though he has performed well as a professional, going (20-2-2), his losses and draws have been due to his technical style where he becomes satisfied with a style where people, especially judges disagree. Like his former teammate Guillermo Rigondeaux, Lara should look to find his KO punch and aggression and accept the criticisms of his stlye. For Rigondeaux, the Super Bantamweight stud, he has avoided losing, but he was dropped by promoter Top Rank due to having a “safe” style that was called boring. Since leaving Top Rank, Rigondeaux has responded with two sterling performances, and this would be a good time for Lara to do likewise and find his KO punch. Rodriguez is a really safe opponent. At (28-7-4) the veteran has been in the ring with tough people, but he is coming back after a 13 month layoff. Prior to that, he took a draw against Joachim Alcine up in Montreal in May of 2014, and just prior to that in October of 2013, he was stopped by Miguel Cotto in the third round. Has Rodriguez used the long layoff to re-invent himself and come out focused, or is he here to grab a paycheck? The co-main event of the fight is at Heavyweight as Poland’s Artur Szpilka takes on veteran Manuel Quezada. Szpilka comes in a wide favorite at (-7200), with Quezada coming back at (+2400), and an over/under has not popped up. Szpilka is sure to get a lot of support from the a big Polish community in Chicago, where he has already fought twice before. He is (18-1) overall, with his lone loss coming in January of 2014 against Bryant Jennings. In light of Jennings showing against Wladimir Klitschko, losing in the 10th round against Jennings is not embarrassing. The fact that he followed that fight with a big win over veteran former two division world champion Tomasz Adamek last November served to get people’s attention. Adamek held belts at Cruiserweight and Light Heavyweight and he had been a long-time contender at Heavyweight, but he retired after the loss to Szpilka with a (49-4) overall record. That was considered a break-through fight for Szpilka, and he followed it up quickly with a second round KO of Ty Cobb in a scheduled eight rounder. Quezada is a respectable (29-9) but considering that he has been off for moe than a year and that he has lost his last five fights, you can see that the people who are handling Szpilka are taking no risks for him in this one.
