Lara: Gamboa's Loss is No Reflection on Canelo Bout

By Edward Chaykovsky

WBA 'regular' junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (19-1-2, 12KOs) is not bothered by the recent defeat of his countryman, Olympic gold medal winner Yuriorkis Gamboa, who suffered his first defeat when he was knocked out by WBO lightweight champion Terence Crawford last month.

Lara goes into the biggest fight of his career on Saturday night, when he takes on Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (43-1-1, 31KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Lara says Gamboa's defeat is no reflection on the skill set that he learned from the Cuban boxing system.

"Gamboa is Gamboa, and in the Cuban system there’s teams, here, this is an individual sport, I’m focused on what I’ve got to do.  It has nothing to do with my game plan or changes what I’ve got to do. My main focus is beating Canelo Alvarez, and that’s what I plan on doing July 12th.   And obviously I always want to stand up and show why Cuban boxing’s the best, and that’s what I’m going to do on July 12th.  And it has nothing to do with Gamboa, obviously we have completely different styles and we’re completely different fighters.  Other than being Cuban, that’s the only thing they have in common," Lara said.