By Francisco Gurrola: Watching the TV show “Golpe a Golpe, I was very interested as to what the comments would be about the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara fight. My first Impressions on the commentators was that none of them were fully satisfied with the fight at the MGM Grand on July 12th; as if something was missing, something was incomplete, perhaps as if the fight didn’t even happen.
When the ESPN commentators asked Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. about the fight his expressions said it all. These aren’t exact words, but from a recap the legend suggested that “Canelo” Alvarez did not do enough to come out victorious; at the same time he also acknowledged that Lara was on the same boat as Canelo.
None of these fighters did enough to win this awaited battle. Chavez Sr. suggested that Canelo lacked lateral movements, side to side movement and mainly the jab, while Canelo wasn’t doing an excellent job at cutting the ring, Lara did not seem to take advantage of Canelo’s mistakes.
Chavez Sr. suggested two things; one was that Canelo perhaps at this point of his career might need better trainers. He respects the fact that he grew up with his current trainers, but thinks it may be time for a better corner. He also mentioned that at this point Canelo might have reached his highest capability of skill and boxing; meaning that perhaps a new corner would not do much on helping Canelo out. The truth is that Canelo is a warrior and we can wish nothing but the best for him for being brave and picking dangerous fights.
Moving on to Lara, Chavez Sr. mentioned that Lara did not take advantage of Canelo’s mistakes such as missing punches. He suggested that if Lara had thrown more punches perhaps he would’ve won the fight easily. Chavez Sr. criticized Lara’s comparison to the all-time champ Floyd Mayweather. Chavez Sr. stated that when Floyd is in the ring, he can make his opponents look bad, as opposed to Lara were he ran most of the times.
Mayweather can trade in the middle and has great movement and counter-punching skills. To all this, Lara is a great boxer, has a respectable style, but I do think that he needs to throw more combinations to the body and start counter punching more as he may be able to punish opponents better with his great speed and foot work.
Lastly, when the son of the legend, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. got asked if he would like to be in the list of possible next opponents for Canelo he said “of course”, it is a fight that fans would want to watch and I would be very interested. (I hope it happens someday as it would be a fun fight to watch). When Chavez Jr. got asked about the performance of Canelo and Lara he was short and clear that Canelo did not show anything new, that his combinations were the same and that Lara did not throw enough punches to win the bout.
Thanks for reading, I do believe that Canelo won the fight 115-113 and also think that Lara did not do enough to take Canelo Alvarez to the Cuban school. Stay posted.