Erislandy Lara vs. Jan Zaveck: Winner, Recap and Reaction

Erislandy Lara vs. Jan Zaveck didn't look like a fight worthy of main event status on paper, and it was even worse in reality.

Lara, the WBA super welterweight champion, defeated Zaveck via third-round TKO on Wednesday at the Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida. The bout was the latest feature bout from Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN.

The Cuban-born Lara connected on a hard right hand that looked to hit Zaveck on the side of the neck. Zaveck reacted oddly to the shot.

He turned his back to Lara—a definite sign of surrender—and bent over in pain. 

Referee Telis Assimenios stepped in to ask Zaveck if he was able to continue, but the 39-year-old Slovenian was either slow to respond or showed signs of giving up. Assimenios made the decision for Zaveck and stopped the fight.   

This wasn't in any way a controversial stoppage. Lara was outclassing Zaveck in a major way.

CompuBox tweeted about Lara's huge advantage in power shots:

Quite honestly, this was a mismatch on paper. The 32-year-old Lara is one of the sport's best boxers, and Zaveck is way past his prime and fighting one weight class above his ideal division. 

As a matter of fact, this bout was quite possibly the worst main event PBC has delivered on one of its primary networks (ESPN, NBC and CBS). The fact that the fight delivered even less entertainment than expected is potentially hurtful to PBC's business venture moving forward. We have to wonder how long fans will continue to tune in to fights like the one we saw on Wednesday night.

ESPN.com's Dan Rafael highlighted the worse real-life concept:

The idea of free fights on television is great, but fans do still want to see competitive matchups from time to time. Not every fight is going to be a bout between top-five contenders, but Lara vs. Zaveck as a real fight was laughable from the moment it was signed.

Perhaps it was an omen, but rain delayed the start of the fight. UCN's Steve Kim favored the precipitation over the pugilism:

While Zaveck's performance was a bit incomplete, we saw enough of him to know he doesn't have enough left to be considered anything but a punching bag for his weight region's elite fighters.

There's no attractive future in that existence.

Lara is awfully talented, and that will unfortunately get lost in all of this mess. He is one of the more avoided fighters in the sport because he doesn't have a magnetic personality that sells tickets, but he's incredibly skilled. He wanted to make a statement on Wednesday; instead his fight ended in more of a whimper.

Still, Chris Connor, aka The Sports Swami, has some ideas for Lara's next fight:  

A Julian Williams vs. Lara fight won't move the needle much with casual fans, but it's a great bout for those who are in the know. Williams is an up-and-coming and undefeated 154-pound fighter.

Thirteen of his 21 wins have come by KO, and he's signed with Al Haymon, the man behind PBC. Thus, as Connor mentioned, there shouldn't be an issue getting the signing.

Lara probably wouldn't be thrilled with the fight because it wouldn't be the big-money bout he's earned. Williams has far more to gain because he'd have the opportunity to knock off someone many fight fans have seen or heard about.

At this point, that's just speculation and the product of hungry fight fans rummaging through PBC's roster in search of a good fight. Maybe the powers that be will listen and feed the needy. After all, Thursday is Thanksgiving.

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