Another major title is on the line in Las Vegas as Erislandy Lara faces Michael Zerafa for the WBA World Middleweight belt. Here is our Lara vs Zerafa prediction.
Lara vs Zerafa Prediction: Is Age Just a Number?
Erislandy Lara Preview
Erislandy has been a professional for a while. He will celebrate his 41st birthday in a couple of weeks. He has been a professional since 2008 but already had huge success as an amateur and representing his country. In 2005, Lara became a world champion in the category up to 69kg and was considered the favorite to win the Olympics in 2008.
He was recognized as one of the best amateur boxers of the time and quickly moved into professional boxing. He made his debut in 2008 and managed to accumulate a record of 29-3-3 (17 knockouts).
In the past, he has held the WBA and IBO light middleweight titles on multiple occasions and is the current WBA middleweight champion. This exact title will be on the line on Saturday.
Lara has been fighting top opposition since 2011 and the long list of opponents includes Carlos Molina, Paul Williams, Vanes Martirosyan, Austin Trout, Canelo Alvarez, Jarrett Hurd, and others. As you can see, he has been fighting champions and former champions one after the other. His three defeats came against Williams, Alvarez, and Hurd.
Despite his age, he won his last four bouts. He defeated Ramon Alvarez, Greg Vendetti, Thomas LaManna, and Garry O’Sullivan. However, he has not fought since May 2022, almost two years ago.
Lara is known for his extraordinary height and huge arm span for his weight class. He is also left-handed, which is often troublesome for his opponents. With this said, let’s take a look at his opponent before we make our final Lara vs Zerafa prediction.
Michael Zerafa Preview
Michael Zerafa has the age advantage but that’s about the end of it. He began his professional boxing career in 2011 and since then has a record of 31-4 (19 knockouts).
Having studied in detail the history of Michael’s opponents, we noticed that as soon as he was given a more or less skilled opponent, he lost (in his 5 fights with higher-ranked fighters, he suffered 4 defeats). These include three former champions – Peter Quillin, Kell Brook, and Jeff Horn.
Nevertheless, he has picked up speed with four wins in a row but it should be mentioned that he also last fought in 2022. He beat Anthony Mundine, Siliveni Nawai, Issac Hardman, and Danilo Creati, after which he earned this title shot – the biggest opportunity in his career.
Overall, he is a boxer who performs at a high pace, has good technical skills, and solid cardio. This and his age will be his advantage against Lara but we do not know if it will be enough.
Erislandy Lara vs Michael Zerafa Prediction: Pretty Boy Is Not Ready For This
Lara’s age and the long downtime are the main reason we aren’t 100% certain about the result. However, Zerafa is not the type of fighter that would typically cause problems to Lara. His reach is bigger by 9 centimeters, he uses the southpaw stance and has years of experience at the highest level. However, the moneyline odds are not good enough to justify the risk. Therefore, our official Lara vs Zerafa prediction is the knockout but be careful with the size of your stake. There are better matchups on this card.
