Erislandy Lara will return to boxing after a 22-month hiatus when he puts his WBA junior middleweight title against Michael Zerafa on the inaugural PBC Amazon Prime Pay-Per-View at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, on Saturday.

“I think it’s going to be a great fight for the fans,” Lara (29-3-3, 17 knockouts) told The Ring. “My style now is to stay in the pocket and do my work on the inside. Most people don’t realize that I’m a complete fighter. I can do many things in the ring, and fighting on the inside is one of them.”

The 40-year-old Cuban southpaw is respectful of what he will face when he steps into the ring against the Australian challenger.

“He’s a good fighter, a hungry fighter who has been waiting for his opportunity to fight for a world title for a long time,” said Lara. “He’s got one chance to make the most of this opportunity, so that is what I have to be careful about, not to take him lightly.

“As far as his skills, he doesn’t do anything I haven’t seen already, but he is solid in every aspect of his game.”

Lara, rated at No. 3 by The Ring at middleweight, held a junior middleweight title and fought at 154-pounds for most of his career before venturing up to middleweight where he annexed the WBA championship.

Although he has taken part in several large events, including facing boxing’s biggest star Canelo Alvarez, he welcomes the opportunity to showcase his skills on a new platform.

“This is a great card and I’m honored to be part of it,” he said. “PBC is here to stay, and Amazon Prime will be very happy with all the big fights coming to their platform. I personally want to steal the show with an incredible knockout.”

While preferring to not go into details of his absence from action he intends to get busy from here on.

Erislandy Lara, left, throws a punch at Terrell Gausha during their fight on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano)

“I just try to stay in shape and be ready when my name is called,” he said. “I’m hoping to get in the ring at least twice this year.”

Though in the veteran stage of his career he isn’t done yet and feels he has many more fights and things to achieve.

“I feel I have a lot of fights left in me and I feel I can fight for another ten years,” he said. “I want to close out the final chapter by defending my world title multiple times and solidifying myself as a Hall of Famer.”

While Lara has been off for nearly two-years, Zerafa has also been inactive for 16 months. Whoever deals with ring rust here will have the upper hand. If Lara is still able to perform at the level he did previously he should have too much for Zerafa and either score a late stoppage or win a wide points decision.

Zerafa (31-4, 19 KOs) turned professional in 2011 and won his first 15 fights all in Australia before suffering his first defeat at the hands of Arif Magomedov (UD 12) in Russia. After a couple of comeback wins he was stopped by Peter Quillin (TKO 5).

The 31-year-old won 8 fights before stepping up again when he was outboxed by Kell Brook (UD 12) in England. Zerafa went 1-1 versus Jeff Horn, initially surprising his countryman (TKO 9) but dropping a majority decision loss in the rematch. Since then, he has won four fights including stopping fellow Aussies Anthony Mundine (TKO 1) and Isaac Hardman (TKO 2).

Tszyu-Fundora, plus undercard bouts, will be broadcast on Amazon Prime at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT

Questions and/or comments can be sent to Anson at [email protected].

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