(Picture credit: Hogan Photos) By Gerardo Granados: It was not a surprise to see what happen last night at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada in the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Erislandy Lara fight. But it was really disappointing to see Erislandy Lara shutting off not only one or two rounds but the entire fight, it was like watching an amateur fight and at the end it turned out quite boring to watch.
According to the current rules to score a bout on the 10 must system Lara did enough to win, I scored the fight 115-113 for him with two difficult rounds to score. Fight judge Levi Martinez had it 117- 111 but I believe the fight was a lot closer than that, maybe Levi had a different angle of the fight.
Canelo´s Corner was clueless as usual. Alvarez struggled too much to cut off the ring and to prepare his shots, he became too predictable for Lara, who was able time him perfectly and predict his punches, leaving Canelo patting the air more than once missing a lot of power shots. I wonder if during training camp his corner prepared him to fight Lara properly, I don’t know why he didn’t use his jab that much and why did he allowed Lara to set the tempo of the fight.
If Erislandy had won on the score cards it would have been a Pyrrhic victory. Lara simply blew the chance to impress fight fans by staying in the pocket to trade taking advantage of his speed for at least a couple of times during the rounds. To be defensively effective you don’t have to run all the time you can stay in the pocket and be successful. I wonder if Erislandy will land a big fight again anytime soon and he might have to forget to win another million dollar purse. I believe Lara did win the fight because he showed better defense and ring generalship during the fight, as for clean and hard punching it was even for both fighters but the effective aggression was on Lara´s side by just a little. Maybe Lara forgot that this is prize fighting and “fight fans pay to watch” two brave lions trading punches and not to see an amateur boxing style exhibition that they could see for free.
Guillermo Rigondeaux might be the least profitable Champion at the super bantamweight division and now Erislandy Lara could turn out to be the one at the light middleweight division after his last night performance. Why didn’t Lara try to please the crowd? Why many fight fans weren’t pleased with last night fight? I´ll leave the answer to the reader.
I think if Lara had showed more intention to fight, to take a risk and to please the crowd he could have won not just the fight but also a lot more fans, but I doubt he will ever change his fighting style, and that is a shame because he has the tools to try to go for the kill instead of play it safe all the time and for a change please the crowd that pays to watch him destroy his opponent and not to see him cleverly outpoint his adversary.
Is the reader eager to see Lara back in the ring soon?
@BN24GGranados
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