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What’s Next For Canelo Alvarez After Defeating Lara By Split Decision?

In the wake of Canelo Alvarez‘ difficult win over Erislandy Lara, we look at the best option for his next fight.

Canelo Lara - Photo by Josh Hedges Getty Images29

Well, that was close.

Canelo Alvarez’s massive gamble paid off, as he squeaked by Erislandy Lara Saturday night in Las Vegas.

The fight essentially went as expected–with Lara sticking and moving, and Canelo stalking and attacking the body. Except Lara did a little too much moving, and Canelo did a bit too much stalking.

Yeah, the fight was awful.

Though the decision could have easily gone either way, the 117-111 scorecard for Alvarez was just too wide to be acceptable. But while a furious Lara demanded a rematch after the fight, this wasn’t highway robbery. It was a very close fight with many difficult rounds to score.

In fact, Lara only has himself to blame. He, the defensive fighter whose fan base is smaller than most book clubs, took on the superstar. Fans roared their approval when Canelo landed a punch, missed a punch, or sneezed. Lara needed to win the fight emphatically. He didn’t.

Lara landed hard straight left hands in the first few rounds. In fact, he landed pretty much whenever he threw. But he stopped throwing power shots almost altogether in the mid-to-late rounds, and bounced around the ring for LONG stretches of the fight while taking nasty body shots.

Canelo Lara - Photo by Josh Hedges Getty Images14

You won’t impress judges that way, and you certainly won’t impress the fans.

Rematch? No, thank you. The fight was god awful, and shelling out another 60 bucks to watch that display appeals only to fans who thoroughly enjoy watching guys like Guillermo Rigondeaux zip around the ring like an angry fly. Both fighters should move on.

So what’s on the table for Alvarez? He proved himself willing to take on all comers, and he should be applauded for it. But it’s clear that he has serious difficulties with pure boxers. He doesn’t cut off the ring as well as Ruslan Provodnikov, and he doesn’t have the power to vaporize like Lucas Matthysse.

However, he is a crowd-pleasing fighter who looks explosive with the right guy in front of him. The guy I want in front of him is Miguel Cotto.

Alvarez can say that he wants to remain at 154, but the fact that he made it to the weigh-in resembling Skeletor shows that he can go up. Hell, Cotto’s the Middleweight champion and he’s not even a middleweight. They could catch weight the thing at 158 and get it done, especially with Golden Boy and Top Rank willing to co-promote again.

The fight hype would be epic.

The Mexico vs. Puerto Rico angle is enough of a lead itself, but couple it with the fact that both Alvarez and Cotto love to scrap, and we’d have all the makings of a historic night of boxing.

There are hurdles of course–Cotto wants to fight in December at his home away from home, MSG in New York. Would Canelo be willing to fight there? Also, Cotto is a notoriously difficult negotiator, so would Alvarez concede the points Cotto demands?

Let’s hope so. It’s a huge fight for two guys who are both chasing another run at Floyd Mayweather. But it’s also the best fight out there for both guys. An end-of-the-year war between two top fighters with huge fan bases? I’m in.

They could make that fight at an outdoor hockey rink in Buffalo, and it would draw 50,000 people.

Alvarez would probably go into the fight as the underdog–Cotto is a better pure boxer and has looked like a wrecking machine lately.

But Alvarez, with his nasty body shots and power punching, would be a very live dog. Could he break Cotto down like Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao did?

We’d certainly pay to see it.

Alvarez desperately wants another shot at Mayweather, but he’s the only one who wants to see that. Mayweather and fighters like him are just all wrong for Canelo, and he’d likely white wash him just as easily the second time around.

Canelo is about to turn 24 and is just now coming into his prime as a fighter. While he may never be as great as boxers like Mayweather or Pacquiao, he could easily take over the fan favorite throne. He’s already got a huge following, and though he will probably lose a few fights down the road, he’ll take on all comers for the sake of his fans.

He may be this generation’s version of his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya–never the best boxer pound-for-pound, but a hell of a fighter with legions of people who’d pay to see him fight anyone.

There are worse things to be called.

Some random notes from this past weekend:

As bad as the 117-111 Levi Martinez scorecard for Canelo was, Glenn Hamada’s 96-94 train wreck for Art Hovhannisyan on FNF was equally awful.

If Mauricio Herrera had better pop on his punches, he’d be an absolute force of nature. He takes a great shot, does serious damage on the inside, and might be one of the most accurate punchers in the sport.

It’s amazing Juan Manuel Lopez has never learned to clinch. He is the ultimate gunslinger–he’s either going to break you, or he’ll be drilled into the mat himself. Who else was hoping his corner would send him out for another round?

Francisco Vargas is one scary looking dude. The guy traded BOMBS with Juan Ma and barely had a scratch on him. More of that, please.

Abner Mares won his comeback fight. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he looked awful. There may have been some trepidation and ring rust lingering from the knockout loss he took, but he was a word I never thought I’d use to describe him–he was boring.

Erislandy Lara is a brilliant technical fighter. No one is disputing that. But to the people utterly shocked that he wasn’t given the decision–when you stink the place out by throwing two shots and then bouncing away for 45 seconds at a time, judges aren’t kind to you. It’s happened a million times to guys like him, and it will continue to happen. Fair or not, that’s reality.

One last thing on him–it utterly baffles me when a guy spends 12 rounds desperately avoiding contact and then rejoices after the bell rings like he just took down Ray Robinson in a shootout.

 

All photos By Josh Hedges/Getty Images

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