Canelo vs. Lara

(Photo Credit:Ed Mulholland/Golden Boy/Golden Boy via Getty Images) By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) made it clear last Saturday night that he doesn’t plan on fighting WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara again despite the fact that there’s lingering doubt whether the 24-year-old Canelo deserved the 12 round split decision he was given over Lara last year in July.

As far as Canelo’s concerned, the Lara chapter is over with and he’s ready to move on towards opponents that he feels have a more exciting style that will make for great fights. Unfortunately, Canelo has been facing weak opposition lately in search of finding opposition that make for exciting fights.

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By Dan Ambrose: In disappointing news for fans of former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs), his pay-per-view fight last month on July 12th Showtime against WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KOs) brought in around 300,000 buys, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.

The numbers are unofficial, however, because Showtime and Golden Boy Promotions have yet to release the final PPV numbers. At this point you have to wonder whether they ever win. If these numbers stay at 300K, then Canelo’s fight with Lara did worse than the 350K PPV buys Canelo did for his fight against Alfredo Angulo earlier this year.

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By D.A: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1 31 KOs) numbers are rumored to have went up by a little against southpaw Erislandy Lara. Canelo’s PPV numbers last time he fought against Angulo were 300-350K which were exceeding expectations according to former CEO of Golden Boy Promotions Richard Schaefer.

I know you guys are all gonna find this crazy but this actually came from HBO president Ken Hershman. Hershman stated if Canelo were to have a fight on HBO PPV, they could easily double those numbers and they aren’t afraid to release PPV numbers good or bad.

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By Dan Ambrose: Last night on Showtime ALL ACCESS: Canelo vs. Lara epilogue, it was interesting to see former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KO’s) speaking about what he had accomplished last week in beating Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KO’s) by a highly contested 12 round split decision.

Instead of accepting responsibility for failing to adapt to Lara’s style, Canelo could only grumble afterwards, blaming Lara for not standing and fighting him in the way that he wanted to, and the way that he’d been accustomed to fighting his entire career.

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By Dan Ambrose: Showtime will be televising the replay of last Saturday’s controversial bout between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) and Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KO’s) at 9 p.m ET/PT. This was a fight that the 24-year-old Canelo won by a 12 round split decision by the scores 115-113 and 117-111 for Canelo, and 115-113 for Lara.

Many people in the boxing industry feel that Lara did enough to get the win, but the more popular Canelo ended up getting the nod.

After the replay of the Canelo vs. Lara fight, Showtime will be televising Canelo vs. Lara ALL ACCESS epilogue. It’s going to be a night of Canelo and Lara on Showtime for fans who didn’t purchase their fight on Showtime pay-per-view last Saturday, and for fans who want to see the rematch.

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By Chester Rivers: Catch-weights, questionable judging and unworthy rankings are huge problems plaguing the sport of boxing and we saw some of that last Saturday night in the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Erislany Lara fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Catch-weights: Saturday’s night showdown was to determine who the number guy at junior middleweight was. The only problem was that the contracted weight was 155 lbs and junior middleweight has a maximum weight of 154 lbs. This was technically a middleweight fight to see who should be number 1 at junior middleweight. Catch-weights are a source of handicapping your opponent and Team Canelo took full advantage knowing Canelo would be at an advantage not having to shed the extra pound.

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“There are no facts, only interpretations” – Friedrich Nietzsche

By Jay McIntyre: It is indeed a cruel twist of irony when two prizefighters bring a version of themselves that would frustrate anyone in their weight class (except Floyd Mayweather Jr.), stick to their game plans, stay focused, punch hard, and afterwards – once the dust has settled – find themselves leaving so many people dissatisfied.

Erislandy Lara did what everyone expected him to do – he was coy and fleet of foot. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez also fought in a manner predictably similar to every other fight of his life. Why then, were so many of us surprised by the outcome? Sure the split scorecards of 115-113 made sense and the third judge’s scorecard 117-112 made far less, but why the shock? Perhaps looking at the scoring criteria can give us some insight into the nebulous realm of viewer interpretation.

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By Dan Ambrose: Showtime commentator Paulie Malignaggi says that he had Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KO’s) beating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) last Saturday night by a narrow 12 round decision, although he was okay with Canelo getting a narrow win because he saw it as a fight that could have gone either way due to the closeness of the fight.

Malignaggi thinks that Lara’s ring generalship was too much for the 23-year-old Canelo, and that he did a great job of keeping Canelo from landing his power shots in the by using range.

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