By Dan Ambrose: After watching Cuban junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 KO’s) school Freddy Hernandez last Saturday night by a 10 round unanimous decision, I give WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) zero chance of beating Lara if he and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions decides to pick him for Alvarez’s next fight on September 15th. The chances of that happening are quite low.
Lara showed blend of power, speed and excellent footwork that would result in a nightmare for the 21-year-old Alvarez to try and deal with. Alvarez doesn’t have the footwork to beat a quick fighter like Lara, who gets around the ring quickly due to his fast feet. The guys that Alvarez has been facing thus far in his career have been stationary fighters that just stood there for him making it easy. The one fighter that used his legs a little, 40-year-old Shane Mosley, had Alvarez looking frustrated at times. You put Alvarez in with Lara, and you’ve got the recipe for Alvarez getting beaten badly.
What really impressed me about Lara last Saturday night was his ability trow with big power while on the move. He was nailing Hernandez with hard right hooks, straight left hands and huge uppercuts on the move. Lara had the Mayweather-eque check right hook that he used to bust up Hernandez’s fast, and I really liked the uppercuts that Lara was landing with huge power.
I didn’t care for the head-butts, but they worked to get Hernandez angry to where he wasn’t thinking straight and it led to him taking more punishment. We’ve not seen Alvarez lose his temper, but I think Lara would do a good job of getting into Alvarez’s head and making him fight with anger instead of intelligence. Once Lara has Alvarez fighting with emotion, he’ll have an easy time picking him apart. However, don’t count on Golden Boy putting Lara in with Alvarez, because they’re not going to do that. They want to keep their young star unbeaten for as long possible so that he can bring in the money for them. If they put Alvarez in with Lara, he’ll likely get exposed and will lose value.
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