Erislandy Lara vs. Demetrius Andrade, who wins if this fight is made?

By BoxingNerd - 08/01/2014 - Comments

lara8By DA: Weeks after Erislandy Lara (19-2-2 12 KOs) suffered his first legitimate defeat, he gets a tweet from another 154 strap holder Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade (21-0 14 KOs) challenging him to a unification bout.

Lara holds the WBA “regular” 154 pound title while Andrade holds the WBO 154 pound title. If you ask me this fight is very intriguing because of the similarities this two share together.

One being they’re both southpaws and another would be their ability to potshot accurately. Differences come down to hand speed, power and defense. Andrade is a tall lengthy guy standing at 6’1 with decent hand speed and decent power.

If you guys are wondering why I am saying he has ‘decent’ hand speed and power it’s because it’s easy to look great beating up a guy who literally lands less than 15 punches before being stopped and stands directly infront of you covering up. Rose was a stationary target with no game plan and stood way too close to Andrade.

Don’t get me wrong Andrade looked sensational but let’s not get over our heads, that was a pure mismatch and would make any pure boxer such as Andrade look great. Lara has the much better resume and better arsenal in my opinion. Lara has more pop in his punches, faster hands, and better defense than Andrade.

Styles makes fights, so I doubt these two would floor each other but it’d be a battle of southpaws  with who can control the distance better and find their range, and you definitely could expect many jabs to be thrown in this fight. Experience would play a key role in this fight and that edge would go to Lara.

Lara has faced much better competition with the likes of Paul Williams, Vanes Martisrosyan, Alfredo Angulo, Austin Trout and Saul Alvarez. While Andrade has faced only one notable opponent and that is Martisrosyan whom he fought for the vacant WBO strap. Hand speed? Lara. Why?

Like I said before Andrade looked very fast in his last only because Rose was a stationary target who did almost nothing before being stopped, had no movement whatsoever. If you look at Andrade’s fight with Vanes, he looks slower than he did in his fight with Rose and even then Vanes did almost nothing after flooring him in round 1. Power? I’d give that edge to Lara as well but by a little and not much. Arm length and height would be in Andrade’s favor. Ring generalship?

Lara has shown us he’s a guy with great footwork and with the  ability to move around the ring, the edge goes to Lara. Another factor you could throw in his Andrade being a southpaw who would be boxing Lara and not pressuring or working on the inside. Southpaws in my opinion are tailor made for Lara because that’s all he’s trained for and as in his amateur days. 8/10 boxers in Cuba are southpaws.

Trying to box Lara is putting yourself at a disadvantage because the man is almost impossible to outbox. The two have fought before at the Pan American games in Rio in 2007. Andrade ultimately lost to Lara and settled for Silver while Lara won gold. Andrade believes he should’ve won but that’s besides the point. Not to mention this fight does have good chance to be made.

If I can remember correctly, Andrade isn’t signed to HBO with exclusive television rights and he is signed to Banner Promotions, so this fight can definitely be made to prove who is the top dog of the two. While I’d favor Lara, I’m definitely not counting Andrade out because he’s still a guy who can prove himself and that’s what boxing is all about.



Comments are closed.