Erislandy Lara Signs With Al Haymon, WBC Mandates Eliminator With Martirosyan

Junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 KO) has signed with superagent Al Haymon, and has also received news that the WBC has mandated an eliminator bout that would pit Lara against Vanes Martirosyan. The fight has a purse bid date of July 27.

Lara is the second fighter this week to sign up with Haymon, following the suddenly famous Josesito Lopez. Lara's manager Luis DeCubas had this to say about the Cuban fighter signing with Haymon:

"Al Haymon is one of the smartest people in the business, and obviously, whenever you can make one of the smartest people in the business a part of your team, then I think you've got to do it. ... My job is to look out for the best interest of Erislandy Lara, and I feel that it would be in his best interest to bring in Al Haymon."

The 29-year-old Lara fought and won this past Saturday, beating Freddy Hernandez on Showtime. If the WBC has their way, he'll be fighting Martirosyan (32-0, 20 KO) next, and Vanes says as usual that he's up for the fight, but we'll have to see. Vanes fights this Saturday on the untelevised portion of Top Rank's HBO card, facing another club fighter in Ryan Davis (24-9-3, 9 KO).

Both Top Rank (Martirosyan) and Golden Boy (Lara) have expressed interest in making this fight happen in the past, so the usual promoter beef stuff doesn't appear as though it should be an issue for this one. It's up to everyone to get it done, and if it doesn't happen, history would suggest blaming Maritrosyan's team for that. But he's saying he's ready to do it. Hopefully he does -- all I want to see him do is actually back up his words and take a tough fight.