Erislandy Lara vs Brian Carlos Castano 3/2/19 Boxing Odds, Preview and Prediction

Former super welterweight champion Erislandy Lara challenges the unbeaten Brian Carlos Castano for the WBA 154-pound title on March 2nd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Erislandy Lara vs Brian Carlos Castano

Erislandy Lara

Lara is 25-3-2 with 14 knockouts or a 47% KO rate. Two of his losses were by split decision and the other a majority decision defeat so you could argue that he is unbeaten. The 35-year old challenger stands 5-9, has a reach of 74 inches and fights out of the southpaw stance.

2️⃣ of boxing’s biggest Cuban stars take centerstage this Saturday @barclayscenter in Brooklyn when former Super Welterweight Champ @Laraboxing challenges @brian_boxi for his WBA 154-LB title on @ShowtimeBoxing at 9 pm ET/6 PT. #LaraCastano 🇨🇺

🥊ℹ️: https://t.co/UPFfiF3hYU pic.twitter.com/QDr7LTKeNj

— PBC (@premierboxing) February 25, 2019

Lara has won six out of his last seven bouts but he lost his last one although that is arguable. Many believe Lara did enough to outpoint Jarrett Hurd. But of course, the knockdown spelled the difference in the scorecards. Because of that, expect Lara to be more cautious here, especially against a hard hitter like Castano.

Erislandy Lara vs Brian Carlos Castano Odds

Brian Castano

Castano has an unblemished record of 15-0 with 11 knockouts or a KO rate of 73%. The 29-year old champion is 5-6 tall and has a reach of 67 inches while fighting out of the orthodox stance. Castano began his career with 8 knockout wins in his first nine bouts. He has gone past six round only once in his career and that happened during his July 2017 title defense against Michel Soro which he won via split decision.

Castano has fought mostly in his native Argentina hence most of the names on his resume are unknown to us, making his fight record somewhat suspect.  This is only his 5th bout on U.S. soil and his first in the United States since 2016. Castano though isn’t stranger to winning on foreign land. His first two title defenses were against Frenchmen and held in France.

Who Wins?

When you take a look at their fight resumes, Castano’s pales in Comparison to Lara’s . Not only has Castano fought only  half the number of fights that Lara has, When you take a look at the quality of their opposition, it’s not even close. Castano’s biggest wins to date were against Michel Soro and Cedric Vitu. On the other hand, Lara has fought the likes of Vanes Martirosyan, Carlos Molina, Paul Williams, Alfredo Angulo, Austin Trout, Yuri Foreman, Jarrett Hurd and Canelo Alvarez. Now that’s a mismatch, at least on paper.

The drawback here is that Lara already has a lot of mileage in that body and at the age of 35, he can grow old overnight in any bout. It could most certainly happen here. But maybe not. While Lara is coming off a loss to Jarrett Hurd, it was a split decision loss and one that could have gone either way really. The difference in that fight was the 12th round knockdown scored by Hurd but you could argue that Lara was ahead at that point because he had outboxed Hurd in the early rounds. Whatever.

Skill-wise, Lara is the much better boxer here. He has better technique and execution. On the other hand, I believe that Castano has the edge in punching power and athleticism. However, I think that Lara is too slick and too smart to fall into traps. He’s going to use his reach and counterpunching sills to keep Castano at bay and win this fight on points. It’s not going to be the explosive main event that we want to see. If you want to see a fist fight, watch the co-main event. This one’s going to be a boxing clinic and Erislandy Lara is going to teach Brian Castano a boxing lesson he will never forget.

Prediction: Erislandy Lara by decision

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Luis Ortiz vs Christian Hammer

In the co-main event, former title challenger Luis” The Real King King” Ortiz takes on German Christian Hammer in a heavyweight feature.

Luis Ortiz

Known as a ferocious puncher, Luis Ortiz is a former interim heavyweight world champion. The Real King Kong came close to defeating Deontay Wilder in March 2018 but after seemingly haven outpointed Wilder in the first nine rounds of the bout, he got caught by a big punch and eventually got knocked out in Round 10. Ortiz is a relentless puncher who likes to put the pressure on his opponents.

Ortiz stands at 6-3 and has a reach of 78 inches and fights as a southpaw. He likes to move forward an put pressure on his opponents by landing wicked body shots to slow them down. The Real King Kong has a record of 30-1 with 26 knockouts and two no-contests.

Luis Ortiz vs Christian Hammer Odds

Christian Hammer

Christian Hammer is the former WBO Euro heavyweight champion. The 32 year old from  Germany is six feet and two inches tall. How and has an undisclosed reach. Hammer has a professional record of 24-5 with 14 knockouts.Hammer has won seven out of his last eight bouts including his last two against countryman Michael Wallisch and Tornike Puritchamiashvili.

The biggest win of Hammer’s boxing career was his 2017 stoppage of David Price. During that fight, Price dropped Hammer in round 5 but ran out of gas while trying to finish the fight. Hammer went on to stop a tired David  Price in the 7th round.

Who Wins?

Ortiz needs a brilliant performance to possibly catch the attention of WBC Deontay Wilder or even Anthony Joshua. And when we say “brilliant”, that means he has to knock out Christian Hammer here. The spin on Ortiz is that while he can still punch like King Kong, he is no longer a spring chicken at the age of 39. But Ortiz looked in form in his last win against Travis Kauffman, knocking down the American three times before the referee halted the bout. But there were moments in the fight where Ortiz looked lethargic and slow. He may indeed be slowing down because of age.

Christian Hammer is a heavy underdog at +1275 and the German isn’t expected to win here. But if Ortiz is looking for a statement win, he may find it harder than he imagined. Hammer went the distance with a similar heavy hitter in Alexander Povetkin. In that bout, Hammer fought merely to survive rather than to win. For sure, he always has the puncher’s chance against Ortiz because this is the heavyweight division. But all things considered, this should be a knockout win for Luis Ortiz.

Prediction: Luis Ortiz by knockout

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