Tough task for Lake - Guyanese faces off against top-ranked Corley in Contender battle

Guyana's Revlon Lake will have his hands full tonight as he tries to take out the No. 1-seeded boxer in the Wray and Nephew 2016 Welterweight Contender competition, American DeMarcus 'Chop Chop' Corley at the Chinese Benevolent Association auditorium.

The bout, which will be over five rounds, is scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live on TVJ.

In the preliminary round of the competition Lake, who has a 9-13-2 record, eked out a majority decision over Anthony Woods, who fights out of The Bahamas. Corley, whose record is now 44 wins, 27 losses and a draw, scored a unanimous decision over Iwan Azore, who is also from Guyana.

Corley is one of the most accomplished boxers in the competition and his record shows him going up against world-renown fighters such as Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah in the past. Although he lost to those boxers, the fact that he was able to compete with them says much for his capabilities.

LOST IN NEW MEXICO

After defeating Azore here on March 16, he engaged in a World Boxing Council (WBC) Interim Latino Lightweight title bout against Adrian Estrella in New Mexico on April 16 over 12 rounds and lost by majority decision. Two judges voted for Estrella and the other judge saw the outcome as a draw.

On his return to Jamaica on Monday night, he declared himself to be "in great condition and ready to go".

If he follows the pattern of his fight against Azore, he will be making himself a difficult target. In that fight, he moved a lot and Azore was not able to build up any concerted attacks. Corley is undoubtedly a smart fighter and knowing that he will be giving away weight - since he is a natural lightweight - he is not going to engage in much action at close range.

Lake will therefore have no alternative but to go after his man ,and it will be intriguing to see what could be a chess-type boxing match unfold.

Corley has 26 knockout victories to his credit, but against a heavier opponent he will quite likely be aiming to build up points round after round and go for a decision. It promises to be an intriguing battle of wills.

The winner tonight not only moves on to be one of the last four boxers in the competition, but will be guaranteed one of the main prizes. The winner will take home the Welterweight Contender 2016 title belt and purse money of $2 million.

The other finalist will earn $500,000, while the third-place boxer gets $250,000 and fourth place, $200,000.