Erislandy Lara is the only one capable of beating Mayweather

By Boxing News - 01/13/2014 - Comments

lara5By Dominic Sauboorah: After analyzing many of Floyd Mayweather’s fights it’s easy to say that a basic brawler or even a combination puncher is not the one to beat him. He will easily make those kinds of fighters miss and make them pay. He’s done it countless times over his career against Miguel Cotto, Victor Ortiz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and so on. He’s even be able to out box guys that have tried to box him like Juan Manuel Marquez and Saul Alvarez.

People are saying Mayweather will struggle with fast punchers like Amir Khan but Mayweather’s a counter puncher and timing always negates speed. There’s only one man I can see beating Mayweather if not at least give him problems and that’s Erislandy Lara.

In terms of Mayweather’s defence and style generally it’s been stated that he struggles against south paws. This is a very general statement and can be argued that this isn’t the case considering that he beat Ortiz and Guerrero with ease, both of whom were south paws. However they’re right handed south paws and with Mayweather’s defensive style he was easily able to negate that punch.

The punch that Mayweather seems to have no answer for is the straight left. A perfect example can be seen in the fight between Mayweather and Judah, the only world class left handed fighter Mayweather has fought. In the first 4-5 rounds he was getting caught time and time again with that straight left and at one point was extremely buckled by the punch to the point where it looked like he could’ve gone down. It’s fair to say that Judah, in the 2nd half of the fight, gassed out to the point where his punches didn’t have the same snap. From then Mayweather picked Judah apart and broke him down further.

Since that fight Mayweather has stayed away from naturally left handed fighters. It can be argued that this is the reason he hasn’t fought Pacquiao yet but again Mayweather isn’t the only one to blame for that fight not taking place. Erislandy Lara’s trade mark punch is his straight left and he used that punch to batter the likes of Angulo, Trout and Williams. Lara isn’t just a one trick pony though, he’s unlike any style Floyd has fought. He uses a lot of lateral foot movement and range which could give Mayweather a lot of problems considering that Lara is 2-3 inches taller and has a reach advantage. The movement, timing, power, speed and ring general ship of Lara could make it difficult for Floyd. Truthfully I can’t imagine the fight being a spectacle and it would be more of a chess match but it would be interesting to see how Mayweather deals with the style of Lara a style I don’t believe Mayweather has seen before.

If Lara is able to land the Canelo fight in 2014and beat him, which I expect him to, then the Mayweather fight becomes a lot more applicable in terms of people actually recognizing the Cuban and understanding that he’s a genuine threat to Floyd’s undefeated record. I personally think he’s a threat as of now and would give Mayweather serious issues. He is an extremely talented fighter, Mayweather seems to struggle with naturally left handed fighters and as I stated before the straight left hand is Lara’s trademark. Mayweather’s brilliant at adjusting, whether he can adjust to the style of Lara is another question.



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