By Chris Williams: With a big mega fight between his fighter WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez hanging in the balance, trainer Freddie Roach says he doesn’t understand why Golden Boy Promotions made the decision to match him against a dangerous fighter like WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12 KO’s) for this Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Roach sees this as being a very, very tough fight for Canelo potentially, and he’s not sure if he can win it. Lara is technically still an unbeaten fighter at this point, and he’s got a style that could give Canelo problems if Lara doesn’t make the mistake of trying to trade with him.
Roach wants the Cotto-Canelo fight to take place next May, and that’s why he’s confused about why Golden Boy agreed to let their young star fight Lara.
“I’m wondering why they picked that fight,” Roach said. “That’s a tough fight for anybody. Lara’s a good fighter. The thing is we’re going to see if Canelo is the real deal or not. This is a big test for him. I wish him luck.”
You can’t blame Golden Boy Promotions for the Canelo-Lara fight, because Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya already said that he wasn’t excited about the fight happening. It was Canelo that pushed for it after Lara campaigned to get it. But obviously Canelo has too much respect for himself to turn the fight down, because he knows what a huge talent the Cuban star is and how it would be a good goose feather to put in his gap if he were to win the fight.
Adding Lara’s name to his resume in the win column would do wonders to bringing back the fans that Canelo lost when he was beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr last year in September. At the same time a victory over Lara would help make a mega fight between Canelo and Cotto that much bigger for next year.
Canelo would no longer be seen as a fighter who was exposed, and more like a legitimate star. Fans won’t be able to say that Canelo is a hype job if he beats Lara on Saturday, as long as it’s a legitimate win and not one where the judges give him rounds for phantom punches landed. A controversial victory for Canelo would be the worst possible thing that could happen to him, and it would be much worse than a mere loss.
Canelo can’t be seen as a coddled star who is given victories that he didn’t actually achieve. That’s why he needs to put an exclamation point on the victory by making it conclusive with either a knockout or at least a couple of knockdowns. Can Canelo do that against a highly mobile Cuban start like Lara? I don’t think so. Lara is too hard to hit when he’s in his boxing mode, and he’s just as much trouble as Mayweather is if not more.
Roach wonders why the Canelo-Lara fight was made because he’s thinking about the bottom line, the cash. Roach doesn’t want to see that big money Canelo-Cotto fight float out the window with Canelo getting beaten up and humiliated by Lara on Saturday.
A bad loss for Canelo will take too long for him to come back from for a fight against the aging 33-year-old Cotto to be made. I’m sure they’ll make the fight anyway, but it won’t bring in nearly as many pay-per-view buys if Canelo is coming off of a disastrous loss to Lara.
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