Who can be the man to defeat Golovkin? Rating the contenders – Erislandy Lara

By alclassico - 02/02/2016 - Comments

lara000(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) By Al Classico: Following on from my previous article on rating the potential opponents at middleweight who are capable of testing and perhaps even defeating Golovkin, we now take a look at a man who by many is seen as an undefeated fighter and also someone who has vocally expressed their interest in fighting GGG at the full 160 middleweight limit.

That man is Erislandy Lara (22-2-2, 13 KOs) who has often received the short end of the stick for a fighter of his calibre and someone who struggles to get the big names into the ring with him. He has already called out Golovkin and assuming that GGG accepts the challenge, what chance would Lara have at knocking of the middleweight king pin?

Firstly, let’s examine his strengths. He is a maestro of the Cuban boxing style where the emphasis is on sticking and moving by throwing fast 1-2 combinations and then immediately moving out of range. Casual fans will call this style running, however it is a valid and effective boxing style, regardless of whether someone likes it or not. Apart from Guillermo Rigondeaux, there is no one else better than Lara at this type of boxing. He has pinpoint accuracy with his jab and that sniper-like straight left which, more often than not find its mark. This was on display in his fight against Canelo Alvarez where in the first half of the fight he was able to land that 1-2 at will and then get out of the range of Canelo’s power punches. This is Lara’s bread and better!

He fights in a simple style but he executes it perfectly and when combined with his slick movement, footwork and water-tight guard he is a very hard fighter to pin down and unload on. Canelo really struggled to get into position to throw any connecting punches and when he did manage to temporarily corner Lara he was barely able to land any clean punches on the body or head. He is a very tricky and difficult customer for anyone to handle at 154 or 160 and would be a 50-50 fight against any of the top guys in those divisions, which is why he is very often avoided.

His main weakness is almost a flip-side to one of his strengths and that is his movement. His defensive and cautious style, as effective as it is, often has him moving sideways or backwards against the higher caliber and more aggressive fighters. It is therefore hard for him to ‘appear’ dominant against his opponent even when he is easily out-landing them. This was evident against Canelo, where even though Lara was clearly out-landing him with the cleaner punches, he was constantly moving backward, whereas Canelo was always moving forwards which gave him a seemingly more dominant position. The problem with Lara’s style is that many judges favor aggression over defense and caution, so he really needs to be mindful of this in future fights. He needs to throw more combinations and stand in the pocket more often to be seen as a more ‘positive’ fighter. At the end of the day people pay money to see aggressive fighters going toe to toe so of course his popularity suffers as a result of his style and since popularity translates into dollars, he has been on the wrong end of bad decisions when up against more marketable opponents.

If Lara were to take on GGG, he would never win via KO or TKO as he simply does not have that kind of power. He has decent power at 154 but nothing special so at 160 his power may be even less, relatively speaking. In other words, nothing that he could hurt Golovkin with. He would have to really bank on his stick and move style to get the job done over 12 rounds. In the unlikely event that they do meet in the ring, it will be close to a 50-50 fight, with GGG having the slight advantage due to his immense power and his experience at middleweight. With that being said, GGG has never faced an opponent with anywhere close to the skill-set and boxing ability of Lara, which is why this fight would really be intriguing.

Lara would be a handful from the opening bell and GGG would find it hard to pin him down in order to connect with his power punches. I see this fight going the distance because I feel that Lara is too slick and fast on his feet to get caught in a corner and punished by Golovkin. The ever-present danger against Golovkin is that once his opponent tastes his power, he is no longer the same and it is then often just a matter of time before he folds. This would be a true test for GGG who, as good as he appears to be, has not faced a top level opponent yet. The fact that Golovkin has not responded to Lara’s call-out puts question marks on his willingness to fight the Cuban. Lara is definitely in the category of ‘high risk, low reward’ fighter who even in his ‘losses’ was able to make his star opponents look very ordinary.

This fight is not a big money fight and therefore it is unlikely to be made, however, from the perspective of a boxing fan, this fight would be very intriguing and would answer a lot of questions about Golovkin. I really hope that this fight does get made as this will be a genuine boxing match for the purists!

Please leave comments below as I would love to hear the thoughts of you, the reader about the outcome of this potential match up!



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