By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) has finished licking the mental wounds from his one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr from last September and he now has one win under his belt since that loss in beating a very slow Alfredo Angulo last March.
That victory has Canelo feeling as confident as he was before his loss to Mayweather, and he’s going to need that confidence in order to deal with Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) in their catch-weight at 155 pounds next month on July 12th on HBO pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 23-year-old Canelo feels that the Lara bout will be the toughest one of his career. It’s hard to know what Canelo means by saying that. Does he mean he thinks that Lara is better than Mayweather or is there more on the line for this fight due to Canelo being in the situation where he can’t afford another loss at this point if he wants to remain a PPV attraction in the sport?
“I’m expecting one of the toughest fights of my career on July 12,” said Canelo Alvarez. “So knowing that I’ll have my fans cheering me on, not just in the arena but in movie theaters throughout the country, has me even more motivated to beat Erislandy Lara and give the fans a fight to remember.”
Canelo is going to need to raise his game considerably from what we saw from him in the Mayweather fight. His trainer Chepo Reynosa had said that they had an excellent game plan for the Mayweather fight, but it didn’t turn out that way. Canelo looked like he didn’t know what he was doing in the ring, and his trainer had the look of panic and confusion in there. As lost as they both were in that fight, it’s difficult to picture them being able to deal with a highly skilled fighter like Lara on July 12th.
“This is the fight that the fans and I demanded and now they will get to see it on a grand scale,” said Lara. “There is no better situation in boxing then to see two hungry fighters willing to put everything on the line for the honor and glory of their fans. I’ll be sending a strong message to the world come July 12th, that you can count on!”
If Lara beats Canelo, then it’s going to shake things up in a big way. Canelo will need to move up to the middleweight division unless he wants to settle for being third fiddle at 154, and we wouldn’t even be sure that Canelo would be the third best fighter at 154 because Miguel Cotto is still fighting at this weight, and you also have Demetrius Andrade.
Comments are closed.