By Jim Dower: In an all around disappointing fight, unbeaten junior middleweight contender Erislandy Lara (15-0-1, 10 KO’s) struggled to a 10 round majority draw with Mexican Carlos Molina (17-4-2, 5 KO’s) on Friday night at the Cosmopolitan Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 97-93 for Molina, 95-95 and 95-95.

Lara tried taking Molina out with his uppercut, but it wasn’t successful because Molina either blocked the shots or wasn’t bothered in the least by them in the same way that Lara’s previous 2nd tier opponents were in the past. Instead of putting his punches together, Lara continued to try and land one big shot. Molina defended well and was often firing back combinations and getting the better of Lara.

With the fight going Molina’s way late, Lara came back in the 9th to land a big left hand to the head. However, the punch wasn’t powerful enough to stop Molina and the fight went into the 10th round with Lara desperately trying to score a knockout. It was Molina though that finished the fight strong, out-working Lara in the last three minutes of action.

All in all, terrible performance from Lara. You could say that Lara badly exposed tonight even though he didn’t technically lose the fight. It was like a loss because Molina is someone that Lara needed to dominate if he is to be considered as a real threat for the champions in the junior middleweight division.

In other action on the card, former welterweight contender Richard Gutierrez (26-6-1, 16 KO’s) was stopped in the 7th round by former Cuban amateur star Yudel Jhonson (10-0, 7 KO’s) in a rather dull fight. Jhonson didn’t look all that great and seemed almost lazy, firing shots but looking slightly timid. In the 7th, the action was halted with Jhonson teeing off on Gutierrez but not really landing. Jhonson did land some good shots but Gutierrez was still fighting and it basically ruined the fight. You really can’t say that Jhonson would have won because Gutierrez was still alive and kicking at the end.