Nothing junior about 154 anymore

By Norm Frauenheim-

It’s one of those hyphenated divisions once lost amid the proliferation of them. Call it light, Call it junior. But don’t call it forgettable. Not any more, anyway.

The 154-pound weight class, once a stopping point between welter and middle, is making a memorable impact on the scale, never more so perhaps than Saturday night with three intriguing bouts at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on a Showtime-televised card.

A division first created in 1962 has some of its own legends. There still might be more money at 160 and 147. But increasingly there’s some history to be made 154, too.

“There are just better fights at 154,’’ said Erislandy Lara, who faces an emerging and unbeaten ex-Olympian, Terrell Gausha, for his WBA title on a card that also includes two other 154-pound title fights — Austin Trout-versus-Jarrett Hurd and Jermell Charlo-versus-Erickson Lubin.

Lara concedes that he is looking up the scale – the pay scale, too – at 160 for a rich rematch with Canelo Alvarez or a shot at Gennady Golovkin. But both figure to be busy with their own rematch of a controversial draw last month.

“I have unfinished business that has to be settled,’’ said Lara, who lost a split decision to Canelo at 154 in July 2014. “He knows who the true winner of our fight was, and he doesn’t want to do that fight again.

“…“If you look at Canelo’s record, there are three marks (a loss, split decision and draw). There’s (Floyd) Mayweather, me and Golovkin. Great fighters fix the wrongs on their record, and Canelo and his team will have to do that sooner or later.’’

For now, however, Lara will have to resign himself to the later. At 154, there are plenty of challenges and paychecks.

“154 is much deeper,’’ Lara said.

It is, and it has been for a while. A who’s who of names have at, one point or another, held a 154-pound title. Here’s Hall of Fame sample: Winky Wright, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Thomas Hearns, Oscar De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker, Felix Trinidad, Wilfredo Benitez and Shane Mosley.

There’s a reason that Wight leads the list. From this corner, Wright’s reign at 154 marks the beginning of an era when the weight became more than just a portal, a stopping point for moving up or even moving out and into retirement.

At 154, Wright was as good as anybody at any weight from March 2004 through May 2005 with successive victories over Shane Mosley and then a win over Trinidad.

If there was a prize at stake for the best performance on Saturday’s Showtime card (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET), it could be named for him. Call it The Winky Trophy For The Wright Stuff. There’s nothing junior or light about 154 anymore.