Lara a potential opponent for Saul Alvarez or Dzinziruk

By Dan Ambrose: Provided that junior middleweight fringe contender Erislandy Lara’s slight facial fracture heals quickly enough, he could be a potential opponent for WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (37-0-1, 27 KO’s) for his second title defense, which is scheduled to take place on September 17th in Mexico.

There’s talk that Lara could get that fight or he could get a fight against World Boxing Organization (WBO) junior middleweight champion Sergiy Dzinziruk for his next title defense. Lara recently lost a controversial 12 round majority decision to Paul Williams.

Many boxing fans and writers saw Lara winning the fight. Williams thus far hasn’t shown any interest in giving Lara a rematch. However, a fight against Alvarez or Dzinziruk would be a lot better for Lara than facing Williams again, because those fighters have titles and Williams currently without a title. But that said, Lara might have a lot of problems against either Alvarez or Dzinziruk because they’re a lot better boxers than Williams.

Alvarez might be especially difficult because he hits hard and has excellent boxing skills. Lara showed in the Williams fight that he has little power to speak of. If he has to take Alvarez’s big shots for 12 rounds, things might not go well for Lara. And with Dzinziruk, he’s got an excellent jab and would no doubt keep the shorter Lara on the outside all night long.

Dzinziruk was recently beaten for the first time in his career in a loss to Sergio Martinez. Dzinziruk couldn’t handle Martinez’s huge left hand shots. Lara doesn’t have anywhere close to the same kind of power as Martinez and wouldn’t be able to give Dzinziruk the same kinds of issues.

Lara seems more suited towards the amateur game because when he fought for the Cuban team his lack of power didn’t matter. The amateur game is about scoring points, but in professional boxing you have to have power. This is where Lara is badly lacking. I see Alvarez knocking him out and Dzinziruk, a decent puncher in his own right, taking him out as well.