By Dan Ambrose: Junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (16-1, 11 KO’s) no doubt would love the opportunity to face WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0, 29 KO’s) on September 15th in a Showtime televised pay-per-view bout.
However, it’s safe to say that the 29-year-old Lara won’t be picked out by Alvarez’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions, and will continue to be left off the list of potential opponents for Alvarez moving forward into the future.
There’s a several reasons why Lara, #3 WBC, #5 WBA, #5 IBF, #10 WBO, won’t be getting a shot against Alvarez anytime soon and they are as follows:
* Lara is a southpaw fighter, and difficult to fight because of that.
* Lara’s hand speed is too good
* Lara’s accuracy with his punches is too precise
* Lara’s counter punching ability makes him a nightmare to fight.
* Lara’s defensive skills are too good.
* Lara’s mobility is much, much better than the slow-footed Alvarez.
* Lara’s power makes him dangerous.
* Lara’s ring intelligence is too high to risk putting him in with Alvarez.
As you can see, Lara is simply too good and too dangerous for Golden Boy Promotions to risk their future star Alvarez by putting him in with the 29-year-old Lara. You can expect for Lara to be bypassed for years to come unless Alvarez improves to the point where he looks like he could stand up to Lara’s shots.
Based on how Alvarez looked in his last fight against 40-year-old Shane Mosley, I don’t see Alvarez being ready for Lara for another six or seven years for when Lara starts losing his skills from old age.
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