Lara: I plan on putting Canelo in the dirt

By Boxing News - 07/12/2014 - Comments

Erislandy Lara(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) says he’s going to pick his opponent Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KOs) apart tonight and leave him on the canvas among the dirt at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lara says he always likes to fight guys that plod towards him the way that the Canelo will be likely doing tonight, because it gives him the opportunity to nail them with straight left hands and right hooks to the head while they’re marching forward.

Lara expects Canelo to walk into a lot of shots when they meet up in their catch-weight fight at 155 tonight on Showtime pay-per-view. If Canelo chooses not to pressure him and instead tries to box him, Lara feels that will make it just as easy because boxing is his game. He feels that he does well equally against boxers as well as pressure fighters.

“I like guys that come and fight, and I pick them apart, like I’ve done to several guys coming up,” Lara said. “These are the fights I like. I like guys who come to fight and I like to put them in the dirt, and that’s what I plan on doing.”

Canelo better have a plan A, B, C, D and E tonight against Lara or this could go very badly for him. Canelo only had a plan A and B in his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2013, and the time it took for Canelo to shift from plan A to plan B was similar to an old car with a worn out transmission. There was a definite lag in shifting gears for Canelo and looked equally poor even when he shifted into plan B.

Canelo is going to need to think for himself tonight if his trainer Chepo Reynoso is slow in lighting a fire under his backside to shift into plan B, C and D, because he’s going to get badly out-boxed by Lara if he stays stuck in any one plan for any length of time. It’s obviously too late for Canelo to lose his trainer Reynoso, so he’s going to need to think for himself.

Lara said “It’s a good style matchup because I know Canelo’s going to try to press forward and press for action, and that’s a style I like.”

Lara is right. If you look at his past fights, he’s always done well against pressure fighters with the exception of Alfredo Angulo. Even in that fight, Lara gave Angulo a beating in dominating the action. The only time Agulo did well was in the 4th and 9th rounds when he dropped Lara with single shots. Lara dominated rounds 1-3, 5-8 and 10. Just the 4th and 9th is where Lara had problems, and that was from single shots he took.



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