Erislandy Lara vacates 154-pound title, keeps middleweight belt

After more than a decade spent at 154 pounds, it looks like Erislandy Lara’s a middleweight from here on out. Dan Rafael reports that “The American Dream,” when prompted by the WBA to choose between his “world” super welterweight and middleweight belts, chose the latter and vacated the former.

Fellow multi-division WBA champion Gervonta Davis recently went through a similar process, ultimately electing to vacate his 130-pound title.

Per Rafael, Lara (28-3-3, 16 KO) pushed the sanctioning body to order a clash with “super” champ Ryota Murata, but it instead sanctioned Murata’s pending unification bout with IBF champion Gennadiy Golovkin. Going by the precedent established in other weight classes, there’s a solid possibility that it will instead order Lara to face recently-stripped interim champ Chris Eubank Jr., who returns to action on October 2nd against Sven Elbir.

At 38 years old, I can definitely understand Lara gunning for some big-name fights to cap off what’s been a highly impressive career. Hopefully this move will result in better opponents than Ramon Alvarez, Greg Vendetti, and “Cornflake” LaManna.