Left-Hook Lounge Mailbag: Canelo vs Lara – The Fight, The Score Cards, The Aftermath!!!

Casey H. (Los Angeles, CA): I saw your Facebook post about the score cards and don’t necessarily agree, but I can respect that there’s a lot of depth to your points. Can you elaborate on how you scored the fight the way you did and why?

Vivek W. (ESB): I think the easiest way to address this question is to point out the fact that fans must realize one simple truth: The way we judge fights as fans is NOT the criteria in which judges are asked to judge fights professionally. If it were that easy, there would be no basic and/or extended requirements to do so. When we judge fights on a fan level, we look for guys landing, giving and taking, and basically the typical stuff. A judges job is far more in-depth and it requires a totally different mental approach, as there are three major things they have to account for, wherein the typical everyday fan is only looking for one (who’s getting hit the most).

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Lara Proves Wrong Thing in Loss to Canelo

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez managed on saturday night to squeak out a split decision win over Erislandy Lara at the MGM Grand, Grand Garden Arena, Las Veges, NV. Lara was devastated over the loss. He felt making Canelo look foolish should have been enough for him to earn the win.

Lara was right, but only about one thing. He did make Canelo look foolish. He would have made any fighter in his weight class look foolish, while proving he has a great pair of legs. He was like Barry Sanders, the great running back for the Detroit Lions. Sanders used to make defenders look foolish when they grabbed for him and got nothing but air. In football the trick is the runner has to advance the ball. In boxing, you still have to punch to win a fight.

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Canelo Alvarez scores close win in brilliant fight with Lara; three names being mentioned for the Mexican star’s next fight: Golovkin, Cotto, Kirkland!

The usual debates that take place after a close fight has been awarded to the “house” fighter, or the big star, over the lesser name with less promotional clout on his side, have already begun. Some say Saul Canelo Alvarez was a worthy winner over slick southpaw Erislandy Lara in Las Vegas last night, while others claim the Cuban talent was robbed of a deserving win. The split decision proved one thing: it’s never easy being a boxing judge.

But whatever you think of last night’s scoring, it has to be agreed by everyone how the 155-pound catch-weight battle was a terrific, engrossing fight. A clash of styles that resulted in some excellent action, Alvarez-Lara was thoroughly entertaining. Talk has also begun of the possibility of a rematch – something Team-Lara obviously and understandably want – but Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya – who was proven to be correct in his thinking that his fighter would win the risky, some said foolishly taken fight with Lara – has said his warrior is “moving on,” and that no-one wants to see a return of last night’s fight.

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Canelo defeats Lara via split decision

A sellout crowd of 14.239 passionate fans rocked the MGM Grand Garden Arena for tonight’s main event. It was a mostly Mexican, pro Saul “Canelo” Alvarez crowd that came to cheer their man on as he took on the highly skilled Cuban southpaw Erislandy Lara.

The scene was tense in the opening round. Lara landed the first solid blow of the night, a straight left hand right down the pike that drew an “ahh” from the crowd. The Cuban was more active and more accurate and clearly took the first.

Through the second round Alvarez dug some nice lefts hook to the body, but the jab was nonexistent from the Mexican. Both fighters had their moments, but the Mexican’s shots were much harder. You could hear the thud from Canelo’s punches ringside, while Lara did a lot of running. In the closing seconds of the third round Lara landed another flush straight left. Alvarez walked through it, but the speed difference was telling.

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Showtime PPV Results: Vargas blasts out JuanMa Lopez!

Fight number two of Showtime’s PPV broadcast was a classic boxing adage of youth versus experience. Even though the two combatants were close in age, Juan Manuel Lopez turned 31 last month and Francisco Vargas is 29 years old, the former champion Lopez has been in numerous ring wars over the years and the undefeated Vargas hasn’t taken much punishment in his 20 pro bouts. Would championship experience reign victorious, or would the fresher, stronger fighter have his way?

These two wasted no time and immediately went to work in the opening round. The crowd was into it right away as both men threw haymakers; yet it was the Mexican Vargas who got the better of it. The same scenario played out in the second round as Lopez was caught clean several times. Although the veteran never stopped punching, it was clear that the shots he was taking were affecting him.

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Canelo Alvarez wins close split-decision over Erislandy Lara from sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena on Showtime PPV®

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) LAS VEGAS (July 12, 2014) – Canelo Alvarez won a close split-decision victory over Erislandy Lara in the SHOWTIME PPV main event in front a sold-out pro-Canelo crowd at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev.

Judge Jerry Roth scored it 115-113 for Lara, Dave Moretti 115-113 for Canelo and Levi Martinez 117-111 for Canelo.

The Mexico vs. Cuba showdown was a classic boxer-puncher matchup with Mexican superstar Canelo as the powerful aggressor and Cuban sensation Lara the slick boxing southpaw.

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Showtime PPV Results: Mares beats Oquendo

The crowd had filled in by the start of the third bout of Showtime’s PPV broadcast, as Mexican Abner Mares made his return to the ring after almost a year off against Puerto Rican Jonathan Oquendo. The last time we saw Mares in the right was last August at the StubHub Center in Carson, California, were he was stopped in the first round by veteran Johnny Gonzalez.

The “Mexico, Mexico” chants started seconds after the opening bell, as both fighters met in the center of the ring. Both men looked sharp and focused on their strategies, trying to set the pace. It was a close first round that could’ve went either way. It was more of the same through the early rounds, with Mares staying disciplined, keeping his hands up and working behind his jab. As the rounds progressed, Mares took advantage of Oquendo’s high guard and began to rip shots to the body.

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Canelo decisions Lara; Mares defeats Oquendo

(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) In a fight that could have gone either way, the more popular Mexican fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KO’s) defeated Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12 KO’s) by a 12 round split decision tonight in a fight that failed to raise the stock for either fighter at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored it 117-111 and 115-113 for Canelo, and 115-113 for Lara. I personally had Lara winning the fight 116-112. The 117-111 score by judge Levi Martinez from New Mexico was baffling to say the least.

Canelo got the win, but he missed all night long with the vast majority of his power shots. Lara was able to hit Canelo with with clean left hands pretty much every time he wanted to in the fight. The problem that Lara had was he didn’t let his hands go enough in the last 6 rounds of the fight, and this obviously led to two of the judges giving Canelo the victory.

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Showtime PPV Results: Herrera-Perez

Tonight’s Showtime pay per view broadcast opened with a terrific matchup, as American Mauricio Herrera took on Johan Perez, of Caracas, Venezuela. The last time we saw Herrera was in Puerto Rico against 140 pound kingpin Danny Garcia, where many fans feel he was the victim of home cooking in favor of the champ. This time he felt more at home in Las Vegas, which is only about a four hour drive from his residence in Riverside, California. Perez held training camp for this bout in America for the first time in his career, where he benefited from great sparring at Daniel Ponce De Leon’s gym in California.

The opening rounds started with Herrera moving forward and Perez backing up, circling to his left, and attempting to counterpunch. Neither man could get land anything flush, causing a lot of tie ups as they slipped punches and jockeyed for position. Things were a bit messy and Herrera wasn’t cutting off the ring but rather following his opponent. It felt as though the Venezuelan fighter was doing the better work early on.

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The Glass Is Half Full: Best of The First Half of 2014

As the final seconds of 2013 ticked away, our attention turned from whatever kind of celebratory beverage we held in our hand toward the topic of what might occur in the year to come. For fans of boxing, the future seemed uncertain; and those of a more pessimistic inclination probably felt they had good reason for viewing it as being rather bleak.

After all, at the start of 2014, the rift between promotional organizations and networks seemed as vast and impassible as it ever had at any point since it was first created. The number of appealing match-ups to look forward was rather limited, and the match-ups that had been bandied about (e.g. Floyd Mayweather-Amir Khan) did little to whet the boxing fan’s appetite. Given that context, it becomes easy to understand why some observers felt that the year would prove to be a disappointment.

Still, six months later, these fears have proved to be unfounded.

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