By John Kelvin: The Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Erislandy Lara fight this past Saturday has caused a lot of controversy among boxing fans. Some point to the fact that Lara landed more punches than Canelo as justification for believing that he won whereas others feel that Canelo won because he landed the harder punches, especially to the body.
When I watched the fight live i felt that it was extremely close and could have gone either way. Now with all the disputes concerning the scoring and styles i have decided to watch a replay and score the fight on a round by by round basis to see how my scorecard compares to the official judges and to see if a winner can be more clearly determined.
Round 1 – I scored this round for Lara because he landed some good jabs and left hands. Canelo landed one or two body shots but didn’t do much over all.
Round 2 – A better round for Canelo but I still gave the round to Lara. He was busier and landed some nice jabs and straight lefts.
Round 3 – Another round for Lara who landed a good left in the last 20 seconds and kept Canelo at bay with right hands. Canelo was more active in this round but didn’t land a lot.
Round 4 – I scored this round for Canelo as he landed some hard body shots and was busier throughout. Lara still landed some lefts but it wasn’t enough to win the round.
Round 5 – A close round. Lara landed a good right hook and left hand at the start of the round. Canelo landed some good body shots and began to mix in some uppercuts to his attacks. Round to Canelo who was displaying more effective agression.
Round 6 – Close round, not a lot of action. Canelo missed a lot but landed a few body shots. I gave the round to Lara who landed some stiff rights and lefts to the head.
Round 7 – Round to Canelo who cut Lara over his right eye with a left uppercut and landed hard body punches.
Round 8 – Another round for Canelo who landed a good straight right at the start of the round. Lara didn’t throw or land enough punches.
Round 9 – A good round or Canelo who landed some good shots to the head and body. Lara seems to have been slowed down by the body attack.
Round 10 – Close round. Canelo again focused on the body but i think Lara just sneaked it with his straight shots to the head.
Round 11 – Another close round although i think Lara just shaded it with his 1-2 combos. Canelo didn’t land enough effective shots.
Round 12 – Canelo started fast but didn’t do enough effective work. Round for Lara who landed some good 2 and 3 punch combinations.
Final scorecard – 7 rounds to 5 for Lara which translates to 115 – 113.
Throughout the fight i don’t think that Canelo did enough effective work to win. The pro Canelo crowd may have swayed the judges in the rounds which were hard to score. I don’t think we will see a rematch as Canelo seems to struggle against fighters with good boxing skills as shown in this fight and the Mayweather fight last September. We will probably see him matched with more aggressive fighters in the future so that he continues to build towards being a huge PPV attraction and so that his vulnerabilities such as his relatively one dimensional style and attack aren’t exposed against good boxers.
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