By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: I wrote an article titled “Fighters; it’s okay to have defense. No Really it is” a little while ago. It touched on the Alfredo Angulo and Erislandy Lara fight along with other topics. In the fight with Lara, Angulo defense was terrible. The swollen eye and damaged faced spoke volumes about Angulo’s defense and it spoke very loud and clear last night against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Everyone is crying that the fight was fixed. This fight wasn’t fixed at all. The only thing that was fixed was Canelo’s fists against Angulo’s face and body. Angulo was there to be hit, but he always has been. 3 of his 4 losses have come by stoppage against fighters who were a step up from his level of competition (Cornelius Brundage, Erislandy Lara, Saul Alvarez).
My question is; is Virgil Hunter even teaching defense to Angluo? Didn’t this team learn anything from the Lara fight? Lara is not even a big puncher and he inflicted much damage to Angulo. Is Hunter just content in seeing his man get beat into submission?
I mean what is it going to take before the word DEFENSE is emphasized during a fight or during his career? Last night was ridiculous. The crowd booed frantically as referee Tony Weeks halted the contest in the 10th round. Weeks did the right thing. Somebody had to save Angulo from taking unnecessary punishment. Angulo will not have a long career if he stays on this path of taking this type of punishment. True, every fighter/boxer gets hit, but mindlessly eating shots is not so great. From Canelo’s end, his win didn’t prove anything to me. He proved he could land against a guy who loves to come forward and eat combination sandwiches. If he chooses to fight against Lara and dominates him, then I will reconsider my thoughts on the 23 year old. He still has a lot he can improve on. He can start with his weight.
Canelo hopped on the scale weighing 155 (middleweight). Some people are still trying to say Floyd Mayweather drained him in their fight last year. That’s utter nonsense. The fact Canelo has been a light heavyweight on fight night in 2 of his 3 fights says he needs to move up to middleweight. Canelo has been draining himself way before he even fought Floyd and last night proved that. Perhaps he enjoys the power and weight advantage he’s had over previous opponents. But it’s time to move up and face better competition.
Lara’s Little Problem
Erislandy Lara is an exceptional fighter. But what falls on a lot of deaf ears is that only the hardcore boxing fans know who Lara is. He can’t sell tickets. Perhaps his promoter Golden Boy has promoted him wrong. Lara’s style is deemed boring by many and that doesn’t help. Maybe he should have been put in an area where he could build a cult following, and then let his following force a fight against a major fighter (i.e. Gennady Golovkin). GGG has built a fan base that gotten the public’s attention and are now calling for WBC middleweight champ Sergio Martinez to answer the challenge.
The way Lara crashed Canelo’s post fight conference shows how bad he wants attention and a big fight. Will he get it? Hopefully he will. But what concerns me is that if Lara lands that shot the casual fan may still may cater to him because of his style of fighting. He just might have to take the Marvin Hagler route.
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