by David P. Greisman

The announcement that junior middleweight Erislandy Lara would be facing former welterweight titleholder Jan Zaveck wasn’t met with much excitement. Perhaps that was due to Zaveck’s three defeats at 147, which had come by split decision to Rafal Jackiewicz in 2008, fifth-round stoppage to Andre Berto in 2011 and by unanimous decision to Keith Thurman in 2013.

But Lara’s trainer, Ronnie Shields, believes that Zaveck is a good opponent and could benefit from being at 154.

“He’s a pressure fighter. He comes right to you. He’s a former champion. He knows how to fight. He’s coming to win,” Shields said. “I’ve been watching a lot of him. He fought Keith Thurman — I think a lot of Keith Thurman, he’s one of the best welterweights right now. At the time he fought Zaveck, he boxed him because Zaveck was right in his chest the whole time. So we’re expecting a very tough fight, but we’re going to be in shape and ready for anything.

“He lost to Berto, I think it was a head butt, he got cut early or something. I just think when a guy really fights at the weight he’s really supposed to be at. You got to look at him and see his size,” Shields said. “He’s not a small guy. He might’ve pushed it to go down to welterweight, but he’s really a junior middleweight. I expect him to be strong. That’s what I see when I look at him.”

Zaveck, 39, has won three in a row since the Thurman loss, and most recently outpointed Sasha Yengoyan this past April to move to 35-3 with 19 KOs.

Lara, 32, is 21-2-2 with 12 KOs and is coming off a unanimous decision over Delvin Rodriguez this past June.

Their fight will headline a Nov. 25 “Premier Boxing Champions” card on ESPN from Hialhea, Florida, near Miami.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com