This Friday night at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, WBA World Super Welterweight champion Erislandy Lara returns to defend his belt against the challenge of Delvin Rodriguez. Lara will be making the first defense of the title he won last December, while Rodriguez has not fought in more than a year and he was 0-1-1 in his last two fights.
Lara feels he was robbed in his his July of 2014 loss to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and he has lobbied hard for a rematch ever since. But if he keeps winning, the big fights he craves will eventually come. Still, this Friday night he is going to have to come in and avoid a letdown against a veteran fighter.
Polish heavyweight Artur Szpilka (18-1) is facing veteran Manuel Quesada (29-8) in a match designed to showcase Szpilka. Szpilka broke through last year and defeated highly regarded fellow countryman Tomasz Adamek, who was 49-3 at the time. Adamek was a former world champion at light heavyweight and cruiserweight and he contended for years at heavyweight, so the win put Szpilka on the map.
The eleven fight undercard also features highly regarded Light Heavyweight Artur Beterbiev (8-0) as he continues his climb to the top facing Alexander Johnson (16-2). This fight had a line briefly posted earlier this week. Check back throughout the week as that and several of the other fights may get lines.
Check out our latest video blog here where we review the odds for the two main fights on this week’s “PBC” broadcast.
