By Cliff Rold
The so far charmed career of 27-year old former Cuban amateur star Erislandy Lara (15-0-1, 10 KO) got its first brush with curse on Friday night at the Cosmopolitan Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada, as Lara, of Miami, Florida, was held to a draw in a spirited effort from 27-year old Carlos Molina (17-4-2, 5 KO) over ten rounds.
Lara and Molina both weighed in below the Jr. Middleweight limit of 154 lbs., Lara at 153 and Molina at 152. The referee was Tony Weeks.
Lara went to work right away with his southpaw right jab, following it with touching straight lefts and then pulling his guard in right while Molina fired flurries that at first found arms. Snapping the occasional counter left uppercut to the body, Lara informed his man in leather that he would be dangerous out of defensive pose. Molina asserted himself with a right uppercut and aimed his left to the body beneath Lara’s defending elbow to make hard contact.
Gradually, earnestly, Molina’s success with the left to the body increased in rounds two and three. The success allowed room for some surprising straight rights while Lara was too deliberate, loading up and failing to put punches together. His best weapon, the lead right uppercut, was muzzled by the guard of Molina at close quarters and Lara found himself facing a legitimate strategic puzzle for the first time in his career to date
A rugged fourth was Lara’s best frame of the night to then, his left hand finding a home down the pipe repeatedly in the final minute, a small mouse rising under the left eye of Molina. The mouse became a trickle of blood as Lara stayed with the left in the fifth, also mixing in a lead right hook and playing less predictable. A single left to the body forced Molina to take a step back, the action then settling to a hold mode over most of the round’s final minute.
Lara’s gathering momentum in the previous two rounds was turned back in the sixth and seventh. Holding his ground and pressing forward, Molina used physicality and digging body work while Lara struggled to land cleanly and reverted to loading up on bombs that would not detonate. The eighth round could have been either man’s with each having their moments, Lara controlling more of the time of the frame but Molina holding sway of the emotion of the bout.
An awkward ninth round favored Lara on the strength of a precise left hand in the corner with thirty seconds to go. Molina briefly looked as if wobbling but he quickly exposed a game of possum. Lara would add another left before the bell near the ropes. His corner imploring him to go for a big finish, Lara stepped out for the tenth round with doubt hanging over his unbeaten mark.
Molina, as had been the case for large parts of the second half of the fight, tied up and frustrated the offensive efforts of Lara while the Cuban failed to fire more than a punch or two at a time. It was, like the eighth, a round that could have gone to either man, neither looking much the winner. Molina closed with a sloppy flurry, Lara doing the holding and then walking to his corner at the bell sucking in as much air as his lungs could muster.
Lara’s ninth may well have made the difference ultimate on the cards with one nod going to Molina at 97-93 and the other pair of cards going to Lara at 95-95 for a majority draw. BoxingScene scored the contest 95-95.
The draw will be seen as a setback by some for Lara, a 2005 Amateur World Champion who has already snared top ten ratings from the WBC (#10), WBA (#3), and IBF (#6). Time will tell. Many a stellar young prospect has had a night on their way up they’d rather forget. Should Lara, who found himself in a serious fight after four consecutive first round walkovers, go on to great things, Molina will be his.
If he does not, this night may well be seen as harbinger of rough passage ahead.
Lara wasn’t the only intriguing Cuban on display.
The best Cruiserweight most U.S. fans never saw when he mattered was Cuban Juan Carlos Gomez, a long reigning IBF titlist who now campaigns as an aging Heavyweight. 25-year old Yunier Dorticos (12-0, 12 KO), 199, of Miami, Florida, has a long way to go to be as good as Gomez was in his prime but he’s guaranteeing the U.S. fan might want to keep an eye on him. Keeping his knockout streak going, Dorticos stopped Jose Luis Herrera (16-11, 16 KO) in just two rounds.
After a measuring first and most of a second round, Dorticos went to work and headed quickly for the exits. A right hand swept across the temple of Herrera, stunning the journeyman and standing him up on rubbery legs. Dorticos followed with another right and then a final left hook to send Herrera crumbling to the canvas. Referee Tony Weeks issued the count, Herrera up at seven and nodding to continue. A final combination, punctuated with a thudding left uppercut, forced Weeks’s hand at 2:36 of round two
In the televised opener, 29-year old Jr. Middleweight Yudel Jhonson (10-0, 7 KO), 153, of Miami, Florida, engaged at a deliberate pace before scoring a sudden seventh round stoppage of 32-year old Colombian veteran Richard Gutierrez (26-6-1, 16 KO), 156, of Miami, Florida.
Once a promising prospect, Gutierrez suffers his sixth loss in twelve fights dating back to his first defeat against then-future titlist Joshua Clottey in a 2006 Welterweight fight. Jhonson, a 2004 Olympic Silver Medalist at Light Welterweight, controlled the action from bell to bell, if not always in exciting fashion. He saved all his flourish for the end. Landing a southpaw lead right hook to get Gutierrez in trouble, Jhonson followed Gutierrez into the ropes, landing another right to snap the head of Gutierrez, following with a glancing left. Referee Russell Mora, perhaps a bit quickly, jumped in to save Gutierrez further punishment at 1:09 of round seven.
Jhonson is not yet rated by any of the major sanctioning bodies but the Gutierrez win should inch him in that direction.
The card was televised on U.S. basic cable outlet ESPN2 as part of its “Friday Night Fights” series, promoted by Warrior Boxing.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
