By Ian S Palmer
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez of Mexico meets Erislandy Lara of Cuba this Saturday, July 12 in a highly-anticipated 12-round junior middleweight bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 23-year-old Alvarez will climb through the ropes with a record of 43-1-1 with 31 Kos while the 31-year-old Lara has a mark of 19-1-2 with 12 Kos to his name. Lara is generally regarded as a skilled southpaw boxer while Alvarez is more known as a straightforward power puncher. This showdown will be aired live in the U.S. on the Showtime pay-per-view network as well as on pay-per-view in Canada and on BoxNation in Britain.
Lara gets the nod as being the better boxer here, but as we’ve seen in the past, power can often negate boxing skills. Alvarez is coming off a 10-round TKO win over Alfredo Angulo in March after dropping a decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September. Next to Mayweather, Lara represents his toughest opponent to date because of his rather awkward style in the ring, his stiff right jab and his fine left cross. Lara’s lone defeat was a controversial decision to Paul Williams, while his two draws came against Carlos Molina and Vanes Martirosyan.
Lara enters the fight with a questionable chin though since Alfredo Angulo decked him twice in their meeting in June of 2013. His Last bout was an impressive 12-round unanimous decision victory over Austin Trout for the interim WBA title back on December 7 in Brooklyn. Alvarez had also beaten Trout by a unanimous decision eight months before trout took on Lara. Alvarez has surely taken note of Lara’s knockdowns at the hands of Angulo and it should give him some added confidence once the bell rings. In addition, Alvarez must believe if he can hang in there with Mayweather, he shouldn’t really have a problem with Lara.
But even though Alvarez went the distance with Mayweather and was generously given a majority-decision loss, he was thoroughly outboxed by the master and this should provide some hope to Lara. Alvarez can be hit, but he’s yet to be hurt. Lara possesses decent power, but it’s hard to imagine him being able to stop the tough Mexican unless he can land some power shots that Alvarez doesn’t see coming.
With close to 50 pro fights before reaching the age of 24, Alvarez has the advantage in experience here. He stands just 5-feet-9-inches tall and has a 70-inch reach while Lara is the same height, but has a slight two-inch reach advantage. However, many fans feel Alvarez is actually a couple of inches shorter than his official listed height. Alvarez knows what to expect from Lara, but he may actually see some things in the ring he’s never faced before, even from Mayweather.
Prediction
Lara will try to utilize his superior boxing skills to land against Alvarez and then get out of the way of any return fire. There’s no doubt Alvarez is going to be hit during this fight, but he’s the type of boxer who doesn’t really mind taking a couple of shots to land one of his own. This is basically due to his excellent chin. Alvarez will attempt to dig his fists into Lara’s body and eventually slow him down. This is a tactic that will likely pay off for him and should take Alvarez to a late-round stoppage or close decision victory.
http://youtu.be/hb4wmDJXO04
