Lara vs. Rodriguez: Where was the killer instinct from Erislandy?

By Boxing News - 06/14/2015 - Comments

1-EW5G1040By Gerardo Granados: Last Friday night, WBA light middleweight belt holder Erislandy Lara defeated a limited Delvin Rodriguez by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 120-107 (3). I scored it 120–106 in favor of Lara.

It was no surprise to see that Rodriguez was tailor made for Lara to look impressive, but what really surprised me was the lack of killer instinct showed by Erislandy. In one corner you have a boxer with great ring IQ, exquisite boxing technique, fast hands, good power and experience but also one with a high tendency to fail to please the audience. On the other corner a brave fighter who tried his best but was simply fighting against a superior boxer.

A friend of mine told me “You can take Lara out of the amateurs but you can’t take the amateur style out of Lara”. Lara could have not only dominated but also pleased the crowd that booed more than once during the bout. Lara didn’t even need to take too many risks because Rodriguez was so slow, flat footed, showed no head movement walking strait to him, basic counter punching abilities, wrong game plan and his corner never advise him on how to properly adjust. I am sure that Lara could have taken Rodriguez out at any round if he had tried but surprisingly he allowed the fight to go to the distance.

I would like to see Lara box smart but at the same time to be a merciless and aggressive going for the kill every single time he gets inside the ring and not just see him out-box and out-think a limited opponent.

Lara lost his biggest opportunity to become a huge draw when he choose to just box and move thru twelve rounds against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, he did ran too much and casual fans dislike that as much as they like a fan friendly fight style.

Lara might have the tools to become a huge draw but his fighting style has brought him from fighting against Canelo Alvarez on Cable TV to fight on Fridays on open television broadcast and the boos from the attendance can’t help him to build a solid fan base.

I don’t need to see how good can Lara box or how accurate and technically gifted he is. All I need is to see Lara looking for to destroy his opponent, and taking at least a couple of risk while doing so. I don’t care if he gets floored or if he loses the fight, all I want from him is to keep me interested round after round in the fight. But to do so he needs to bring his killer instinct inside the ring and forget for twelve rounds of his amateur upbringing.

Boxing purists must be in awe with Lara´s boxing style but the rest of us fight fans could need a little bit more than just a superb pure boxing exhibition to get trilled while watch him fight.

I think all is missing from Lara to become a huge draw is his killer instinct. But how about the reader. Do you agree?



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