http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/post/_/...ra-bout-ordered

I follow Dan Rafael on Facebook. This immediately caught my attention. I think this will secretly catch people as a surprise as to how good it is. I haven't seen Vanes much but when I did, he was intriguing. Same with Lara. Just curious to see what you guys thought about this one.

I'd have to go with Lara, the stable of fighters he's been facing lately is steadily enabling him to gain valuable experience fighting A level fighters, Vanes is decent but Lara is in a different pedigree. Though Vanes is learning a great deal under Shields he still hasn't elevated his status as of late and the best guy he faced is Ouma (who is done these days).

I'd go with Lara by decision but I can't count Vanes out, dude can box and is a great bodypuncher.

I admittedly don't know much about Vanes. I've seen a round or two here and there on m lunchbreak. I do however like what I saw when he sparred Chavez!

He hasn't had a lot of exposure because TR/Bob Arum hasn't been putting him on any of the big undercards because he isn't an exciting type of fighter (aka a KO puncher) but he does possess a lot of amateur experience/golden glove champion and whatnot so you can't count him out.

I rarely put too much into sparring these days because sparring isn't like it used to be in the old days when they would literally turn them into "gym wars", so looking good in sparring can be deceptive simply because some fighters are either trying to whip themselves into shape or just trying to stay busy in between fights and not get hurt.

Sigh...fuckin Vanes kills me with this. I haven't seen much of his bouts either, just youtube clips and his name all over the place. I've read more about him, than actually seeing his fights.

All I can remember, is him calling out a heap of fighters and the ink never hitting the paper. He's called out Shane years ago, Sergio, Chavez, and Angulo (to name a few). I expect fighters to call out the big names, but by all means, if you're signed with Top Rank, then people need to remind him who runs the show.

Dude is still a prospect, due to his lack of mainstream television exposure. I like him as a fighter, but the world hasn't seen enough of him, and being with Bob while trying to call out a Golden Boy fighter, or signing for a "mandatory" eliminator, does him no good. I only remember him fighting that Greene guy on the undercard of Cotto/Foreman, and read about him fighting on the Chavez/Zbik undercard last year.

He's a bit chinny in the early rounds, but most guys are likely to be hurt early, some later on in the fight. Lara will give him hell, if he's not first and able to use angles before Lara gets started. Vanes is gutsy, but Im not sure how he holds up with the bigger punchers. He could easily pass as Darchinyan's brother though.

vanes hasn't worked with shields for over a couple of years. he seems to be an afterthought at the wildcard. i thought he signed a deal to work with freddie again. who knows? last i saw him...before the ouma fight...alex ariza was working with him. that might have explained his poor performance. alex is not a boxing trainer. i thought he looked his best when he was working with eric brown.

Nice matchup. Hopefully TR and GBP can make it happen.

GBP needs to build Lara up. And the way to do that is to put Lara on the Sept 15th undercard. That way people tuning in to see Canelo get a good look at this kid.

They need to put all those Cubans in Miami, I mean the Heat aren't playing any more.