By Rick Reeno

MGM Grand, Las Vegas - On Saturday night, Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya had a flashback of his 1999 twelve round majority decision loss to Felix Trinidad, which took place at the nearby Mandalay Bay.

During that fight, De La Hoya felt he was well ahead on the scorecards and decided to coast in the championship rounds while Trinidad chased him around the ring and tried land something big. De La Hoya was wrong; the fight was very close and Trinidad secured the victory with his last rally.

When discussing the outcome of last night's contest, which saw Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (44-1-1, 31KOs) win a twelve round split decision over WBA 'regular' junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-2-2, 12KOs), De La Hoya placed the scoring blame on Lara's fight strategy.

Lara was tabbed as the winner by one judge with a card of 115-113, while the other two scores of 117-111 and 115-113 were ruled for Canelo.

"And you guys wrote about this. I was against this fight for a reason. Lara was the most avoided fighter on the planet. Nobody wanted to fight him. Why? Because of tonight. What did he do all night? [Canelo supporters at the presser start chanting 'he ran']. I apparently ran against Felix Trinidad in the last three rounds - and I lost my fight. And that was only three rounds. It was a great fight. I respect Lara because of the athlete that he is and the struggles that he went through but tonight Canelo won," De La Hoya said.