Before I say this let me explain I am a huge fan if both fighters. I love the Cuban style of hit and don't get hit but I also love the Mexican style of boxing, as well as canelo's unorthodox Mexican style. I favoured Lara to win.
But I don't believe this was a robbery.
I scored it 115-113 in canelo's favour.
In the opening rounds Lara was comfortably throwing 1-2 combos while avoiding canelo. First three were definitely Lara's. 4th round I gave to canelo easily. 5th I gave to Lara although it was close. But rounds 6-10 and the last round were in canelo's favour while the 11th was Lara's.
Before anyone complains, no I am not a crazy Mexican fan and I am not a filthy casual who complains when a fighter uses defence in favour of offence. Lara was not "running," he was boxing. He was throwing clean, effective shots and moving out of the way to set up more shots. When I hear someone complain about Lara running all I see is "I'm annoyed that canelo couldn't cut off the ring." Lara had an initially good gameplan where he throws, moves away and throws again. Against someone like canelo that's the perfect thing to do. BUT HE WASN'T ACTIVE ENOUGH IN THE LATER ROUNDS.
Canelo started very slow and plodded around as I expected but he gradually wore Lara down with some pretty nasty bodyshots. Initially he showed little head movement. But as the fight continued Lara started to slow because of those bodyshots while canelo started making adjustments. He showed a bit more head movement but still took a few shots that he shouldn't have. Although he couldn't completely cut off the ring he eventually started landing combinations with relative ease. The big difference here is that canelo made adjustments but Lara didn't. Lara was schooling canelo for the first three but as canelo made adjustments Lara wasn't able to throw as many punches. And that's what tipped the fight in canelo's favour.
Now I know the punch stats show that Lara actually landed more than canelo but that is over the course of the whole match, not round by round. Canelo threw little in the first few while Lara threw a lot. Then canelo threw more in the later rounds while Lara threw less. Lara just wasn't active enough.
HOWEVER THERE IS ONE BIG PROBLEM WITH THE SCORECARDS.
There is no way, no way, that canelo won 117-111. No way. And that's where the problem lies. De la Hoya is definitely paying off judges to protect his cash cow. Trout, mayweather and now Lara. That's three fights now with dodgy scoring for canelo. People need to start calling out de la Hoya.
At the end of the day this was a great fight and I'm amazed at how canelo adjusted to what is probably the most awkward style for him to face. I think somewhere down the line there is potential for a rematch but Lara needs to show is that he can be more active. He needs to take a fight or two with another top contender and win in a dominant fashion to warrant a rematch. Canelo should try and fight cotto. Cotto weighed in at 155 for Martinez anyway so canelo should take this while he can make 155 because he can't make light middle anymore. But canelo NEEDS to improve his footwork. This match and the floyd fight showed that canelo isn't yet able to cut off the ring. If he learns to use his feet more he could become the most all round fighter today. And he's only 24 in a few days so he had time to develop.
TL:DR- canelo made adjustments and was more active, Lara boxed brilliantly but wasn't active enough in the later rounds. And de la Hoya is corrupt.
Ringside doctors, referees, and judges are hired and paid on a fight to fight basis by the promoter
If you want to continue getting fights, there's going to be a cognitive bias from the jump on who you're going to lean towards as a judge, certainly some judges have morals and others do not
same with doctors, if the a-side fighter is winning a fight but gets his eye blown up with a punch, it wouldn't be in your best interest to stop the fight unless it's absolutely necessary, whereas if the lesser known guy is giving the a-side an asswhooping and gets the same injury, more likely than not that the dr will stop the fight
tl;dr: refs, judges, drs are hired by the promoter
K, thanks. If only more people realised this.
Would you explain exactly how if works then? I'm not being confrontational I'm genuinely curious. I mean how can one make such a mistake?
Ringside doctors, referees, and judges are hired and paid on a fight to fight basis by the promoter
If you want to continue getting fights, there's going to be a cognitive bias from the jump on who you're going to lean towards as a judge, certainly some judges have morals and others do not
same with doctors, if the a-side fighter is winning a fight but gets his eye blown up with a punch, it wouldn't be in your best interest to stop the fight unless it's absolutely necessary, whereas if the lesser known guy is giving the a-side an asswhooping and gets the same injury, more likely than not that the dr will stop the fight
tl;dr: refs, judges, drs are hired by the promoter
**** Compubox
I saw Canelo land more meaningful shots than Lara and it isn't really debatable
This fight reminded me of Thomas Dulorme vs Karim Mayfield, dude was fighting scared
I'm glad someone agrees here. Compubox is pretty unreliable at times. Anyone with eyes could see who landed shots here. It wasn't like Lara was pulling an Algieri here.
I see a lot of people say "judges were paid off/bribed"
that isn't how it works
Would you explain exactly how if works then? I'm not being confrontational I'm genuinely curious. I mean how can one make such a mistake?
But it's blatantly obvious that oscar paid off that judge from New Mexico. I'm surprised that more people haven't called him out on it. 117-111 is a redicilous score
I see a lot of people say "judges were paid off/bribed"
that isn't how it works
**** Compubox
I saw Canelo land more meaningful shots than Lara and it isn't really debatable
This fight reminded me of Thomas Dulorme vs Karim Mayfield, dude was fighting scared
And I guess that you imply that Lara was fighting scare as well?
That's a faulty comparison, because Lara landed more overall. Your comparison would only make sense if Canelo landed five times more to the body than Lara did to the head... This is however not the case.
**** Compubox
I saw Canelo land more meaningful shots than Lara and it isn't really debatable
This fight reminded me of Thomas Dulorme vs Karim Mayfield, dude was fighting scared
I believe Lara relied solely on trying to impress the crowd and the judges with his mostly defensive style. Not good judgement when you're fighting in your opponent's basically home town.
Lara should've realized that leaving the fight in the judges hands to score would've been a risky proposition that may not have favored him. And that's what turned out to be the case.
He should've fought more offensive/aggressive-minded if he planned to win strictly on points and not by KO.
Fight could've gone either way if the 117-111 judge wasn't so biased for Canelo.
Canelo applied the pressure and connected effectively in several rounds.
I suppose Ronnie's strategy was merely to box from the outside and win it on points.
Ain't gonna get you the win if you're not as skilled as Money Mayweather who would've fought a smarter fight last night.
.
spot on!!
After the first 3 rounds I thought Lara had it in the bag but Canelo is a dog, he knows how to out muscle and out hustle guys and he started doing that to Lara and the Cuban couldn't take it...or maybe he didn't want to take it.
Great boxers have good technical skills (Lara) but they also know how to get dirty and fight like a rabid dog (not Lara).
Yep, this pretty much sums up how I saw the fight too.
But it's blatantly obvious that oscar paid off that judge from New Mexico. I'm surprised that more people haven't called him out on it. 117-111 is a redicilous score
Lara took the first 3 I agree and it looked like a good game plan, but I have to disagree later on, he was pretty much on his bike with not alot coming back, some small flashes but absolutely no in the pocket game at all. His so called footwork turned into sprinting, it didn't look like he wanted to engage with Canelo at all. . . . I'm not sayin he should have gone to war, but there were several missed opportunities for landing clean effective counters which could have got him a decision in the end. . . there were parts of the fight between round where he genuinely looked like he was struggling, almost fighting scared.
spot on!!
After the first 3 rounds I thought Lara had it in the bag but Canelo is a dog, he knows how to out muscle and out hustle guys and he started doing that to Lara and the Cuban couldn't take it...or maybe he didn't want to take it.
Great boxers have good technical skills (Lara) but they also know how to get dirty and fight like a rabid dog (not Lara).
7-5 decision for Lara. I can't find the 7 rds to give Canelo unless Im being bias and the judge who gave Canelo 9 rds was drinking too much lean lastnight.
That's a faulty comparison, because Lara landed more overall. Your comparison would only make sense if Canelo landed five times more to the body than Lara did to the head... This is however not the case.
No, I'm not literally saying that's what happened. I was just saying body shots count too. I agree overall they both threw around the same amount of punches over the course of the fight. But you can't honestly say that Lara was active enough in the later rounds. It's the amount of punches you throw and land within the round. Lara didn't land enough per round to win the later rounds. That's what I'm trying to say. Yeah, he was using good footwork but there were moments when he could have thrown but didn't.
Last I checked body counts too. If you hit me once in the head and I cleanly hit you 5 times in the body, does that mean you win? Of course not. Believe me I thought Lara would win. I wanted him to win. As I was scoring I was trying to find all kinds of reasons to give Lara a round here and there. But I couldn't ignore canelo's combinations and the fact that he was much more active.
That's a faulty comparison, because Lara landed more overall. Your comparison would only make sense if Canelo landed five times more to the body than Lara did to the head... This is however not the case.
Last I checked body counts too. If you hit me once in the head and I cleanly hit you 5 times in the body, does that mean you win? Of course not. Believe me I thought Lara would win. I wanted him to win. As I was scoring I was trying to find all kinds of reasons to give Lara a round here and there. But I couldn't ignore canelo's combinations and the fact that he was much more active.
Except he wasn't , 415 punches against 386 is not being much more active. they both threw little enough and Lara was much more accurate.
Last I checked body counts too. If you hit me once in the head and I cleanly hit you 5 times in the body, does that mean you win? Of course not. Believe me I thought Lara would win. I wanted him to win. As I was scoring I was trying to find all kinds of reasons to give Lara a round here and there. But I couldn't ignore canelo's combinations and the fact that he was much more active.
It's one of those fights I don't want to rewatch, so I must go off first impression. Lara was landing jabs and straight lefts. His work on Canelo's head was hard to ignore. Canelo did land some nice body shots, but classically, head shots are valued more than body shots in a scoring situation. And Lara had a monopoly on the head shots. I know if Lara was the cash cow in this situation, HE could have easily got the nod.
Yeah, that's a fair point, especially if Lara was the cash cow. But later on, he just wasn't active enough. I tend to count head shots more as we'll but canelo's body work was exactly what he needed. It slowed Lara down for sure. Like I said, I think a rematch is kind of in order but Lara needs to be more active. He'll, Lara landed some nice straights to the body early on but he just wasn't adjusting enough in the later rounds and like the poster above he didn't fully capitalise on the opportunities he had to counter.
Lara took the first 3 I agree and it looked like a good game plan, but I have to disagree later on, he was pretty much on his bike with not alot coming back, some small flashes but absolutely no in the pocket game at all. His so called footwork turned into sprinting, it didn't look like he wanted to engage with Canelo at all. . . . I'm not sayin he should have gone to war, but there were several missed opportunities for landing clean effective counters which could have got him a decision in the end. . . there were parts of the fight between round where he genuinely looked like he was struggling, almost fighting scared.
Completely agree, canelo made the adjustments necessary and Lara got slower while canelo got more active. Like you say, Lara could have countered but he didn't. And that's why he just wasn't active enough to win the fight.