Preview: PBC on Showtime Super Welterweight Tripleheader

The 154-pound weight class will take center stage for Showtime’s championship tripleheader on Saturday. In the evening’s main event, decorated Cuban Erislandy Lara will defend his WBA super welterweight world championship against Vanes Martirosyan in a rematch of their 2012 bout that ended in a technical draw. Meanwhile, Jermall Charlo will put his IBF super welterweight strap on the line against Austin Trout in another featured bout, while his brother, Jermell Charlo, will face John Jackson for the vacant WBC super welterweight world title. The action takes place at The Chelsea at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas and airs on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. ET. Here is a closer look at the evening’s three featured matchups.Erislandy Lara (22-2-2) vs. Vanes Martirosyan (36-2-1) The Matchup: The first meeting between Lara and Martirosyan was not visually pleasing, but it did prove that Martirosyan can at least be competitive against an upper echelon opponent. The contest proved to be a contrast between Martirosyan’s aggression and Lara’s movement and selective offense. Early on, that favored the Armenian-born Californian, as he pressed forward against Lara and landed enough right hands so that a mouse formed under Lara’s left eye. In the seventh and eighth rounds, however, Lara began to assert himself with his trademark counter left hands and ultimately outlanded his adversary by a 74-to-43 count. However, a foul-filled contest ultimately came to a premature ending when an accidental clash of heads gave Martirosyan a cut over his left eye and rendered him unable to continue. The contest was scored where it ended, with one judge giving seeing it 86-85 for Martirosyan and another submitting a 87-84 score in favor of Lara. A third had it 86-86, making the final verdict a technical draw. In order to achieve some measure of satisfying closure, Lara will have to do his best to avoid the inactivity that tends to plague him for stretches of his fights. It cost him several key rounds in his first meeting with Martirosyan, and if “Nightmare” elects to do the same in the rematch, Lara could find himself facing an early deficit. The southpaw Lara’s speed, four-inch reach and technical skill are his greatest advantages against Martirosyan, who is average defensively. However, his awkward style gave Lara pause last time, and it is usually the Cuban who is adept at making foes look bad. Lara is at his best when he can bait opponents into chasing him so that he can land his powerful counter left hand; it simply took him too long to get that working in 2012 against Martirosyan. Lara uses his jab nicely to set up his counter left, and his sense of timing on that 1-2 combination is impeccable. If there is a complaint about Lara’s bread and butter, it’s that he can became too predictable with it. Martirosyan is normally more comfortable at distance, and he will circle in both directions after throwing punches. The straight right is his weapon of choice and it is backed by a decent jab. Like Lara, he can be prone to lulls in activity, but he seemed to be aware that aggression was …

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