McGirt: Lara is going to beat Canelo

By Boxing News - 07/02/2014 - Comments

lara7By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Buddy McGirt sees WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KOs) beating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KOs) in their fight on July 12th. McGirt likes the blend of boxing skills and punching power that Lara has in this fight, and he also sees his southpaw stance as being a factor in this fight. Canelo says he’s been training with southpaw sparring partners, but it’s not likely that they have the kind of talent that Lara has.

“Canelo’s going to get beat by Lara, just watch,” McGirt said to esnewsreporting.com. “He [Lara] can box as well as punch and he can box southpaw.”

Cruiserweight Ola Afolabi also feels that Lara will be Canelo. He says “I think Lara’s nobody to sleep on. I’m leaning towards Lara in this fight.”

If McGirt and Afolabi’s predictions turns out to be true, Canelo is going to need to figure out another way he can remain a successful star. What good is a star who gets beaten each time he steps it up against the very best.

Canelo would be little more than another Marco Antonio Rubio if he can’t get past the best fighters, and if that’s the case he might want to move up in weight to 160 to try his hand at that weight. Canelo might be okay at middleweight as long as he avoided Gennady Golovkin and Peter Quillin. He would have to drop his ‘I only want to fight the best’ motto, because he would likely wind up as a journeyman if he were to try and fight only the beat.

Lara is going to make it very tough on Canelo in this fight by keeping him at range and not letting him get close enough to throw his combinations to the body and heat. Canelo is a good fighter when he can get close to his opponents. He’s a huge puncher on the inside, and capable of using his 170+ size to beat up 154 pound fighters. But if he’s not able to get in close. He’s very average on the outside, and not truly top level.



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