Erislandy Lara: record, next fight and profile →
Erislandy Lara and Danny Garcia put on an anti-show Saturday in Las Vegas, with Lara doing the minimum to defend his middleweight belt and Garcia bowing out early in his debut in the division.
Let’s look at the potential storylines that will come out of Saturday's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga PPV. What are the implications for each man in the case of a win or a loss?
Danny Garcia was the co-featured attraction when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fought Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, beating Lucas Matthysse to defend his 140-pound WBC title for a fourth time. Eleven years later, Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs) will co-headline an Alvarez event for a second time when he challenges WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Lance Pugmire provides a rundown of Canelo Alvarez's key Las Vegas fights
Danny Garcia has been in this exact position before: fighting in Las Vegas, on Sept. 14, in the co-main event of a major pay-per-view card headlined by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Can he repeat?
Although briefly rendered voiceless, the verbose Angel Garcia still sought to test the limits of Erislandy Lara, who will defend his belt against Garcia’s son, Danny, Saturday in Las Vegas.
At the age of 41, Erislandy Lara is well beyond what is often considered a boxer’s prime years. He’s even past the age that almost every fighter of note hangs up his gloves.
When it was suggested to Erislandy Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs), who puts his WBA middleweight title on the line against former two-weight world titlist Danny Garcia, that a Garcia victory would be the ticket that granted the Philadelphian entry to the most exclusive of boxing clubs, the Cuban-born emigre countered that the same was every bit as true of him.
Since the age of 15, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez has gradually fought his toughest potential opponents, and in the two defeats he has recorded from his 65 professional contests, lost partly because the two fights he agreed to – against Floyd Mayweather and Dmitry Bivol – were somewhat ill-advised.
If it was hooked only to that five-fight stretch of more than a decade ago, the case for Danny Garcia to be placed in the International Boxing Hall of Fame would be sound.