Canelo vs. Lara full card analysis and predictions

By BoxingNerd - 06/28/2014 - Comments

lopez9By DA: Well, boxing family we’re roughly 2 weeks away from seeing the most anticipated boxing card of this year so far, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) vs Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) on July 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’ve been seeing some great debates on how Lara will or how Canelo will win, and it just makes me wish the fight was tomorrow.

Like me, I’m sure there are tons of fans ready for this fight and I often get so caught up with the main event, I forget about the great undercard it has.

We’ll first start off with the opening bout which is Johan Perez (19-1-1, 13 KO) vs Mauricio Herrera (20-4, 7 KO) in light welterweight action. I’m sure many of thought Herrera was utterly screwed down in Puerto Rico when he fought the current 140 pound champion Danny Garcia. I had that fight 8-4 for Herrera and he even ended the fight in dramatic fashion snapping Garcia’s head back with jabs and hard straight rights in the 12th round. But I had a feeling Herrera wouldn’t get the decision regardless because this fight was supposed to be a homecoming fight for Garcia too look good in Puerto Rico in his first fight there. Well, things didn’t go to plan and Garcia received a gift decision before his birthday, which was a few days after this fight.

Now Herrera has a chance to win an interim strap from current WBA interim champion Johan Perez. While Perez is a pretty talented guy and is on a four fight win streak with victories over veterans Paul Spadafora and Steve Forbes. We have to remember those guys are way past their prime and Perez lost to the only decent fighter he’s fought in Pablo Cesar Cano. So Herrera should become Garcia’s mandatory challenger with a unanimous decision over Perez and capturing the WBA interim strap.

The next fight on the Canelo-Lara card is former two division world champion Juan Manuel Lopez (34-3, 31 KO) vs prospect Francisco Vargas (19-0-1, 13 KO). Lopez rejuvenated his career with a 2nd round TKO win over Daniel Ponce de Leon last March. Now he’ll will be facing a former Olympian from Mexico and a rising prospect who looks for a title shot in the near future, with a victory over Lopez. Vargas has decent power and if he can stay away from Lopez’s heavy shots he can win by out-boxing Lopez and cruise to a unanimous decision. Lopez will have to get on the inside and rough Vargas up because he can-t win by out-boxing a boxer with superior boxing skills to his. But I see Lopez still the same as the way he was when he lost to Mikey Garcia. Vargas should win a tough hard earned decision.

After those two fights, we have the return of Abner Mares (26-1-1, 14 KO) vs Puerto Rico’s Jonathan Oquendo (24-3, 16 KO). Mares, a 3 division world champion will look to get back on track after his stunning loss to the hard hitting Jhonny Gonzales who might’ve pulled the upset of the year in 2013 winning the WBC 126 title. Mares will look to comeback from his loss and make an impressive return. While Oquendo is a tough guy and solid fighter with skills. He is more of a gate keeper than contender and really this is only a tune-up/comeback fight for Mares. I predict Mares by a late round stoppage. Then we have the grand finale which is Canelo vs Lara.

While I will not say who I favor in this fight, I can say if Canelo wants to win he’ll have to get on the inside and take away Lara’s range because he is the superior inside fighter and he must work the body as well. Lara if he wants to win he must find his range and stay on the outside and keep on the move. So his legs must be in shape and he should look to use his pot shot ability. Let me hear what you guys think of this card and who’ll be the winner of each bout.



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