Our friend Corey Erdman had a chance to speak with Showtime boxing analyst Steve Farhood about tomorrow night's ShoBox double-header from Minnesota, with Lateef Kayode facing Felix Cora Jr in what is being called Kayode's "graduation" fight from the series, and a catchweight (143) clash between Vincent Arroyo and Hector Sanchez.
Here's the audio:
Farhood (on Kayode): "I don't think they've been necessarily overly cautious, but I do think that the last couple of fights for Lateef have been as impressive as they would have liked. Because when you're talking about going into a title fight, which Lateef is ready for, you want to think you can win it. And the cruiserweight division is so difficult, because you have four pretty good champs, all based in Europe -- or at least three based in Europe, and Guillermo Jones in Panama -- and it's so tough to win a title on the road, and Lateef, of course, is American-based. So you want to think that he has a shot, and he hasn't really shined, and I think he better shine against Felix Cora tomorrow night if we're going to think of him as any kind of title threat at all."
There's plenty more on Kayode and the Arroyo vs Sanchez fight, both of which are pretty interesting fights for different reasons. We'll see, as Farhood says, how ready Kayode is for that next step, and the Arroyo vs Sanchez fight will be a good test for both of those young fighters.