Erickson Lubin’s trainer is confident that his refreshed fighter can accomplish something Saturday night that none of Luis Arias’ opponents have done.
Kevin Cunningham, who once trained Arias, predicted during an interview with BoxingScene.com that Lubin will stop Arias inside the distance in their 10-round, 157-pound bout at The Armory in Minneapolis. Arias has been knocked down during losses to Luke Keeler and Daniel Jacobs and in an upset victory over Jarrett Hurd, but he has not lost by knockout or technical knockout in 10 years as a pro.
Cunningham expects Arias to push Lubin, but he also stated that Lubin (24-2, 17 KOs) will win impressively in his first fight since Sebastian Fundora stopped him after the ninth round of their spectacular slugfest in April 2022 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
“I think he’s training his ass off,” Cunningham said of Arias. “He knows he’s in for a tough fight with ‘Hammer.’ When he trains, he trains hard. I trained [Arias] for a little while. He trains hard, he’s dedicated and he’s coming to fight. I know that and we’re not looking past him. I think he’s coming to fight. I think it’s gonna be a crowd-pleasing fight. This is one of those fights that I just don’t think is gonna go the distance. I think ‘Hammer’ is gonna look spectacular. He’s prepared. He’s ready. He’s motivated to make a statement.”
Lubin’s loss to Fundora has driven the 27-year-old junior middleweight contender to prove he can still succeed at the championship level. After suffering a second-round knockdown, Lubin brawled with a then-undefeated Fundora, sent the 6-foot-6 southpaw to the canvas in the seventh round and led on two scorecards (85-84, 85-84, 85-85) before Cunningham stopped their 12-round bout because he feared Lubin would suffer permanent damage to his severely swollen face.
“He’s disappointed in himself with the Fundora fight,” Cunningham said. “For whatever reason, he didn’t execute the game plan that we put together for that fight. For whatever reason, he wanted to fight Fundora toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow, which was a mistake. But he is ready to rectify all of that and put all of his skills and talent on display on Saturday night and win in spectacular fashion. That’s the whole goal and that’s what we’ve been working on.”
The 33-year-old Arias (20-3-1, 9 KOs, 1 NC) will end a long layoff Saturday night as well. The Milwaukee native hasn’t boxed since he unanimously outpointed Jimmy Williams (18-11-2, 6 KOs, 1 NC) in a 10-rounder in May 2022 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Arias is two years removed from upsetting Hurd (24-3, 16 KOs), a former IBF/IBO/WBA 154-pound champion, by split decision in their 10-round encounter on the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul undercard at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Cunningham still considers the talkative veteran an opponent capable of ruining Lubin’s plans if the Orlando, Florida native doesn’t take the appropriate approach to their fight.
“I think he’s a solid fighter,” Cunningham said. “I think you have to be on point and be on top of your game when you deal with [Arias] because he’s good enough to upset anybody. I mean, I wouldn’t consider him one of the elite fighters in the middleweight or junior middleweight divisions, but I consider him a solid veteran that could beat anybody on any given night.”
Showtime will broadcast Lubin-Arias as its co-feature before the Dominican Republic’s Carlos Adames (22-1, 17 KOs) defends his WBC interim middleweight title against Philadelphia’s Julian Williams (28-3-1, 16 KOs, 1 NC) in the 12-round main event. The premium cable network’s coverage from Minneapolis will begin at 9 p.m. EDT with a 12-round junior bantamweight championship match in which Argentina’s Fernando Martinez (15-0, 8 KOs) will defend his IBF 115-pound crown against his mandatory challenger, the Philippines’ Jade Bornea (18-0, 12 KOs).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.