Erislandy Lara v Ramon Alvarez

[Master]

Erislandy Lara over his loss to Canelo, plans to knock out his brother Ramon Alvarez

Erislandy Lara finally has what he wants.

Well, sort of.

The former WBA super welterweight champion, who is 8-1-1 in 10 world championship fights, has got another tough fight for the vacant WBA (regular) light middleweight title on Saturday against a guy with a pretty famous name these days in boxing.

The downside for Lara is he’s fighting Ramon Alvarez, the older brother of Canelo. Canelo Alvarez, of course, is one of boxing’s biggest stars and holds the WBA middleweight belt. The bout at The Armory in Minneapolis will be televised live as the main event of a PBC on Fox card.

Ramon is four years older than his more famous brother and not nearly as talented. Ramon is 28-7-3 with 16 knockouts, and he hasn’t beaten a series of future Hall of Famers, like his brother has done.

But Ramon provides Lara with a chance to not only get his first win in 23 months, but also to regain a championship belt and prove that even at age 36, he’s still among the division’s elite.

Despite an 0-1-1 record in his last two bouts, anyone saying Lara is through hasn’t been watching. His loss to Jarret Hurd was the 2018 Fight of the Year as chosen by the Boxing Writers Association of America, and he easily could have gotten the nod from the judges.

Still, he switched trainers from Ronnie Shields to Ismael Salas for this bout and plans to put on a show.

“Alvarez is about to find out how hard we've worked,” Lara said. “I think after the sixth round, you will see all the training that I did and the game plan that we have, [and see me] start to break him down. After that, the knockout is going to come.

“My goal has been to get back to the top of the division. I’ve been at the top of the division all of these years and regaining a title is huge. It’s part of my history and my legacy. I’m super excited to be back in another big fight. I’m just focused on getting my title back. I want to look spectacular in this main event Saturday night on a big stage. Then I can move on to the biggest fights in the world.”

Lara is one of those borderline Hall of Fame candidates. His 85 percent winning rate in 10 title fights unquestionably makes him a candidate, but he came up on the short end of his three biggest bouts. He lost agonizingly close decisions to Paul Williams, Canelo Alvarez and Hurd.

He could easily be unbeaten. He’s had some quality wins, but hasn’t beaten an A-level star in his prime. He could make his Hall of Fame case with a strong stretch run, which begins Saturday against Alvarez.

He’s become a much more entertaining fighter to watch and not the defensive wizard whose fights were difficult to watch at times earlier in his career.

“I don’t put too much thought into Lara’s last two fights not being wins,” Alvarez said. “He’s changed his mentality and attitude and he’s fighting and not boxing as much as he did before. I think that shows that he still has a lot left in the tank to give.”

Lara feels that way. He believes switching from Shields to Salas will benefit him, though he has nothing but good things to say about Shields. But he’s on the stretch run of his career and wanted to be certain he gave everything he could to the sport.



He chose Salas, who has long been regarded as one of the sport’s brightest minds. He is great at formulating game plans and is adept at helping his fighter make in-bout adjustments.

Whatever he’s been selling for the past two months, Lara has been buying.

“Going back to my original pro coach, Ismael Salas, has been great,” Lara said. “Ronnie Shields is a great trainer and we had a great run together. I just had to change [the] atmosphere. I’m very comfortable in Las Vegas, [where I trained for this fight]. The sparring was perfect and we’re ready to rock.

“I come well-prepared for this fight. The fight with Canelo was a long time ago, so now I’m just looking forward and toward being in bigger fights.”

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/eri...223829017.html

[Spicoli]

Young 6'5 Sebastian Fundora is getting his ears boxed a bit early. Clark keeping him continually resetting over 5 but just took a good hook. How does Ramon Alvarez blow weight by 4-5 lbs. Guess he eats at the same steak joint Canelo does.

[Spicoli]

Alvarez comes in at 177+ and looks like a statue getting destroyed. How this was a 'title' fight says all you need to know about the irrelevancy and bartering of trinkets now. Like to see Lara and Julian Williams do something and tie some of these belts together. 154 seems a bit stagnate now

[Ron Swanson]

Alvarez comes in at 177+ and looks like a statue getting destroyed. How this was a 'title' fight says all you need to know about the irrelevancy and bartering of trinkets now. Like to see Lara and Julian Williams do something and tie some of these belts together. 154 seems a bit stagnate now

Wow, stagnate? J-Rock just beat Hurd and is rematching him. Harrison just “beat” Charlo and will rematch him. Then winners of these fights are supposed to meet. That’s more top guys meeting in more fights than any other division.

[powerpuncher]

Lara seems to have been around forever and is always stuck with being one of the best at light middle. I don’t think he was ever considered #1 at that weight through his whole career. He has never seemed to get better or worse. He is the same as he always was. A good fighter who just can’t reach the very top.

[Ron Swanson]

Lara seems to have been around forever and is always stuck with being one of the best at light middle. I don’t think he was ever considered #1 at that weight through his whole career. He has never seemed to get better or worse. He is the same as he always was. A good fighter who just can’t reach the very top.

The Rings annual rankings had him

2013-2
2014-2
2015-1
2016-3
2017-1

[powerpuncher]

Lara seems to have been around forever and is always stuck with being one of the best at light middle. I don’t think he was ever considered #1 at that weight through his whole career. He has never seemed to get better or worse. He is the same as he always was. A good fighter who just can’t reach the very top.

The Rings annual rankings had him

2013-2
2014-2
2015-1
2016-3
2017-1

Interesting. Im not sure if I ever rated him #1. I might have.

[Ron Swanson]

Lara seems to have been around forever and is always stuck with being one of the best at light middle. I don’t think he was ever considered #1 at that weight through his whole career. He has never seemed to get better or worse. He is the same as he always was. A good fighter who just can’t reach the very top.

The Rings annual rankings had him

2013-2
2014-2
2015-1
2016-3
2017-1

Interesting. Im not sure if I ever rated him #1. I might have.

Either way, he is probably past his best. It’s for Charlo, Harrison, Hurd, Williams to decide right now. With Munguia being a fraud and up and comers to be determined.

[Spicoli]

Alvarez comes in at 177+ and looks like a statue getting destroyed. How this was a 'title' fight says all you need to know about the irrelevancy and bartering of trinkets now. Like to see Lara and Julian Williams do something and tie some of these belts together. 154 seems a bit stagnate now

Wow, stagnate? J-Rock just beat Hurd and is rematching him. Harrison just “beat” Charlo and will rematch him. Then winners of these fights are supposed to meet. That’s more top guys meeting in more fights than any other division.

True but in the sense that it's doing fights we've already seen and while Williams v Hurd was entertaining both matches have a shot at unfolding in the same fashion. Charlo and Harrison just wasn't a good fight and it's only happening because the judges were drunk or paid. Then you have Munguia who was rolled out as 'the next Vargas' and has really gone downward in performance and allowed to face complete unknowns ranked into the teens for the sake of a holiday showcase. Lara might just end up politicked into facing Soro which is ehh. The division is definitely PBC ground, would love to see Lara v Williams style wise.

[Ron Swanson]

Alvarez comes in at 177+ and looks like a statue getting destroyed. How this was a 'title' fight says all you need to know about the irrelevancy and bartering of trinkets now. Like to see Lara and Julian Williams do something and tie some of these belts together. 154 seems a bit stagnate now

Wow, stagnate? J-Rock just beat Hurd and is rematching him. Harrison just “beat” Charlo and will rematch him. Then winners of these fights are supposed to meet. That’s more top guys meeting in more fights than any other division.

True but in the sense that it's doing fights we've already seen and while Williams v Hurd was entertaining both matches have a shot at unfolding in the same fashion. Charlo and Harrison just wasn't a good fight and it's only happening because the judges were drunk or paid. Then you have Munguia who was rolled out as 'the next Vargas' and has really gone downward in performance and allowed to face complete unknowns ranked into the teens for the sake of a holiday showcase. Lara might just end up politicked into facing Soro which is ehh. The division is definitely PBC ground, would love to see Lara v Williams style wise.

If they unfold the same, assuming the judges get it right, we get Charlo v Williams, fantastic. All that matters to me is we get best vs best. It’s not like MW where the previous champion campaigned mostly against mid tier jr middles and the current champion campaigns god knows where.

Or look at Super Middle, the previous “top guy” was 3-4 in title fights, no clue how that makes you Top. The current top is 2-0, without fighting the other top guys, hardly proved top.

The top LHW hasn’t fought any of the other top guys

The top cruiser is at Heavy

If Jr Middle proves who is top they are doing something rare and I applaud it.

[Spicoli]

Alvarez comes in at 177+ and looks like a statue getting destroyed. How this was a 'title' fight says all you need to know about the irrelevancy and bartering of trinkets now. Like to see Lara and Julian Williams do something and tie some of these belts together. 154 seems a bit stagnate now

Wow, stagnate? J-Rock just beat Hurd and is rematching him. Harrison just “beat” Charlo and will rematch him. Then winners of these fights are supposed to meet. That’s more top guys meeting in more fights than any other division.

True but in the sense that it's doing fights we've already seen and while Williams v Hurd was entertaining both matches have a shot at unfolding in the same fashion. Charlo and Harrison just wasn't a good fight and it's only happening because the judges were drunk or paid. Then you have Munguia who was rolled out as 'the next Vargas' and has really gone downward in performance and allowed to face complete unknowns ranked into the teens for the sake of a holiday showcase. Lara might just end up politicked into facing Soro which is ehh. The division is definitely PBC ground, would love to see Lara v Williams style wise.

If they unfold the same, assuming the judges get it right, we get Charlo v Williams, fantastic. All that matters to me is we get best vs best. It’s not like MW where the previous champion campaigned mostly against mid tier jr middles and the current champion campaigns god knows where.

Or look at Super Middle, the previous “top guy” was 3-4 in title fights, no clue how that makes you Top. The current top is 2-0, without fighting the other top guys, hardly proved top.

The top LHW hasn’t fought any of the other top guys

The top cruiser is at Heavy

If Jr Middle proves who is top they are doing something rare and I applaud it.

I'm all for sorting a division out true enough and it sure helps when guys who were already assumed to be the 'top' are under same promotion. It's in do-over and reset stage for a couple of them, instead of letting it marinade maybe they would have done well to make Charlo v Hurd when they were talking it up and considered best but let's hope those winner v winner shape up. Usyk did what we should all hope for, cleaned house and left the division to start over.

[Ron Swanson]

Alvarez comes in at 177+ and looks like a statue getting destroyed. How this was a 'title' fight says all you need to know about the irrelevancy and bartering of trinkets now. Like to see Lara and Julian Williams do something and tie some of these belts together. 154 seems a bit stagnate now

Wow, stagnate? J-Rock just beat Hurd and is rematching him. Harrison just “beat” Charlo and will rematch him. Then winners of these fights are supposed to meet. That’s more top guys meeting in more fights than any other division.

True but in the sense that it's doing fights we've already seen and while Williams v Hurd was entertaining both matches have a shot at unfolding in the same fashion. Charlo and Harrison just wasn't a good fight and it's only happening because the judges were drunk or paid. Then you have Munguia who was rolled out as 'the next Vargas' and has really gone downward in performance and allowed to face complete unknowns ranked into the teens for the sake of a holiday showcase. Lara might just end up politicked into facing Soro which is ehh. The division is definitely PBC ground, would love to see Lara v Williams style wise.

If they unfold the same, assuming the judges get it right, we get Charlo v Williams, fantastic. All that matters to me is we get best vs best. It’s not like MW where the previous champion campaigned mostly against mid tier jr middles and the current champion campaigns god knows where.

Or look at Super Middle, the previous “top guy” was 3-4 in title fights, no clue how that makes you Top. The current top is 2-0, without fighting the other top guys, hardly proved top.

The top LHW hasn’t fought any of the other top guys

The top cruiser is at Heavy

If Jr Middle proves who is top they are doing something rare and I applaud it.

I'm all for sorting a division out true enough and it sure helps when guys who were already assumed to be the 'top' are under same promotion. It's in do-over and reset stage for a couple of them, instead of letting it marinade maybe they would have done well to make Charlo v Hurd when they were talking it up and considered best but let's hope those winner v winner shape up. Usyk did what we should all hope for, cleaned house and left the division to start over.

Yup, so we should all pump up Usyk and Crawford every chance we get. Because you see other fighters wanting that respect we shower on them and then they want the same. Loma too, if he fights the top guys and Mikey(because you can’t be the top LW without fighting the other top LW). The notion that fight is gone is wrong. It’s there to make if TR will make it.

[Ron Swanson]

Okay, Jarrett Hurd pulled out of the Julian Williams rematch. Spicoli, you were right, f 154. Hurd is moving to 160. I get it if dude can’t make 154 anymore but it sucks.

[powerpuncher]

Hurd is a fighter that is so good because of his size advantage. He has good stamina despite having to cut so much weight, he has a good chin, and has good power because of his size. I just don’t think he will be able to last at middleweight

[Master]

Hurd was so huge against Lara that it was almost unfair that Lara had to box him. Lara could not keep Hurd at bay not because he was the better boxer but because Hurd was using his sheer size to push back, bully and overpower Lara.