De La Hoya says Canelo plans on punishing Lara

By Boxing News - 07/12/2014 - Comments

delahoya7777By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya says that he spoke with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) at Friday’s weigh-in and Canelo promised him at that time that he’s going to punish WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) in tonight’s fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

De La Hoya says Canelo is worked up over Lara supposedly insulting his countryman, as well as his insults about him and his lack of boxing skills.

De La Hoya says he’s never seen the 23-year-old Canelo this upset before during his career. De La Hoya doesn’t say what Lara specifically said to him at the weigh-in other than looking at Canelo in a dismissive manner that suggested that Canelo is well beneath him in talent.

“He [Canelo] looked at me, and I’ve never seen this look in his eye, but he looked at me, and he told me, “Oscar, you watch, I’m going to punish him,” said De La Hoya via RingTV.com. “He looked at me with this look in his eyes that I’ve never seen from him…He attacked Canelo, personally, and he attacked his countrymen. To Canelo, that’s very personal…I’m telling you, I’ve never seen Canelo react or act this way. He has that fire in his eyes.”

I think it might not be a good thing if Canelo gets angry and turns red in the face tonight in swinging for the fences against Lara. There are some fighters that fight better when they’re angry, but Canelo isn’t one of them. The times that I’ve seen Canelo get annoyed/angry in fights, his form has gone downhill dramatically like when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr last year and Shane Mosley in 2012. Canelo got angry in those fights at times and he looked poor.

Lara is going to give Canelo huge problems if he blows his top tonight and comes out furious like a little bull seeing red. Lara is a technical fighter from Cuba who has been taught to control his emotions.

If Canelo is unable to separate the trash talking that Lara has done from the actual job that he needs to do tonight, then we could see Canelo get beaten again and put in a situation where his career will be in shambles. If Canelo loses tonight it’ll be his second defeat in his last three fights. Canelo must win this fight in order for him to continue forward towards bigger fights against Miguel Cotto and possibly a rematch against Mayweather.



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