The one thing Lara needs is...

[{Pito}]

Lara can do both from what I see. He seems to fight down to his opponents level. I can very well be wrong but from what I see he shells up and just analyzes his opponents and if he has to he can pull out his slickness in an instance in a jam. Would be better if he fought at his 100 percent all the time. Or I can be misreading and he does give it his all. Either way I do see a reserve of skill he opens up from time to time.

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

I'll tell you what Lara needs. He needs his promoters to handle him the same way they handle ginger.

That's a very good point. When I heard Lara went with GBP I was pretty excited but it turned out to be pretty disappointing. The way they been handling him has been pretty ****ty.

what you on about martinez's shirt is sexy

Lol yea some of those are funny but kinda suspect at times.

He needs to continues to be that aggressive and he'll be fine but he might want to stop leaning in with his head or someone with an uppercut will take it

He does that to set traps. I had a gif where it shows it. Ill see if I can find it but yea you're right. It could happen. Im pretty sure this is what you mean right here:

[.:: JSFD26 ::.]

I'd have some concerns if he faced some real big punchers at 160 like Golovkin, Quilin, maybe Proksa, but not in terms of him getting tired, but in terms of opponents being able to break through his defence with their power punches, like Jermain Taylor was able to do against Winky Wright to some extent.
It's always better to slip than block

Yea thats pretty much where I was trying to get at.

Lara can do both from what I see. He seems to fight down to his opponents level. I can very well be wrong but from what I see he shells up and just analyzes his opponents and if he has to he can pull out his slickness in an instance in a jam. Would be better if he fought at his 100 percent all the time. Or I can be misreading and he does give it his all. Either way I do see a reserve of skill he opens up from time to time.

Yea and fighting at your opponents level we have seen can backfire on you at times.

[CubanGuyNYC]

Problem with Lara is and always be getting too much into that shield defence when opponents are getting close to him, ends up getting outworked, but I think he's improving on that.

I agree 100%. That's my biggest problem with Lara. He goes into that high guard shell and waits for his opponent to stop punching before he returns fire: "You done? Okay, my turn!" I was hoping to see a change last night, but there's been little. I suppose when you've fought hundreds of fights that way there's little hope of change. Anyway, maybe it's a stylistic issue I have. If it works, why fix it? My concern is that Erislandy's habit will be exploited by a top fighter. He can be outworked, as you said, or punished by a murderous body puncher.

[New England]

He didnt need to against hernandez

he could have at least leaned into those body shots and take some of the juice off

i dont think lara looked bad (like some of these clowns out there,) but he could have certainly done things better last night



i think the most important aspect of his performance were the need to go rounds, the intent to be more fan friendly, and how strong freddie hernandez really is and how hard he can punch

he absorbed hellish punishment. very good chin. berto is a totally different sort of fighter. he hit him cold with an explosive shot over i think it was a lazy jab. he clearly didnt see the shot.



hernandez was also coming off of a big win against collazo, a guy who was supposed to outclass him. it was a brutal fight from what i've heard. i have not seen it, but i heard from media people that the fight was very physical.

[CubanGuyNYC]

Lara can do both from what I see. He seems to fight down to his opponents level. I can very well be wrong but from what I see he shells up and just analyzes his opponents and if he has to he can pull out his slickness in an instance in a jam. Would be better if he fought at his 100 percent all the time. Or I can be misreading and he does give it his all. Either way I do see a reserve of skill he opens up from time to time.

I saw this again last night against Hernandez. Not to discredit Molina by any means, but I felt Lara did the same against him. I really get the sense that Landy tends to sleep on opponents he regards as inferior. If the guy doesn't go down from a well placed shot, Lara is content to go into a sparring session where he expects his superior ability to carry the day. Freddy's a tough guy and deserves credit for that, but Erislandy never seemed to press on the gas, either.

[Chief2ndzOnly!]

I disagree, he'll never be Pernell Whitaker, but he's moving his body just enough when he needs to. Shield defend is his style and it will always be that way, there's no point in changing that now.
He's very strong physically, so opponents punches on his guard are not really moving him, so there's no problem at him tiring because of that, his opponents are the ones that have to worry about getting tired with amount of punches they have to throw to penetrate that defence. Just look at Abraham, he was not moving his head at all, catching everything on his hands, yet he was the one who was going strong in later rounds knocking people out.
Problem with Lara is and always be getting too much into that shield defence when opponents are getting close to him, ends up getting outworked, but I think he's improving on that.

I agree completely, and the bolded is very spot on. He moves just enough, as to not waste any movements which is very smart D. He also positions himself to counter and get out the way. There were some things he did in the ring last night that made me say "WOW, we have a bonified budding(his pro career is still young dispite his extensive Am career and age)Boxing genius here."

I've been following Rigo and Lara every since they turned pro, and I've always been convinced that Lara was the more complete Boxer of the two.

[MalikKnucklez]

Some interesting and valid points about Lara and his tendency to fight at opponent's levels.

I think a big part of that perception comes from the fact that Lara has an extremely one-dimensional offensive set. Everything about Lara's approach revolves around the two biggest things in his offensive arsenal, his straight left hand & his sweeping right hook. The counterpunching, the defensive "plodding", the methodical timing, all of it is to set up one of those two, or a combination of both.

As soon as a fighter effectively neutralizes either one, Lara becomes complacent, less-aggressive and relies solely on technical prowess to cruise through a fight.

[Chief2ndzOnly!]

I agree 100%. That's my biggest problem with Lara. He goes into that high guard shell and waits for his opponent to stop punching before he returns fire: "You done? Okay, my turn!" I was hoping to see a change last night, but there's been little. I suppose when you've fought hundreds of fights that way there's little hope of change. Anyway, maybe it's a stylistic issue I have. If it works, why fix it? My concern is that Erislandy's habit will be exploited by a top fighter. He can be outworked, as you said, or punished by a murderous body puncher.

While I agree that Eryslandy tends to fight in spurts at times. Last night I saw him counter out of the high guard. He did a lot of sneaky things in there last night. He was setting up those check hooks at will. He was dropping blazing straight lefts off feints. His footwork was amazing, he barely let Freddie get position, and often turned him ever so slightly to square him for the left. And he did not forget about the body. Even in the 7th when Hedgepeth took the point for the headbutt, I still scored the round 9-9 because Eryslandy dominated Freddie.

IDK, I've always been very impressed with Eryslandy, and maybe it was the opponent he had in front of him in Freddie Hernandez(Who is no push over). But I thought he put on a clinic last night against a very tough opponent.

TBH it made me want to see Mayweather/Lara @154.

I say if K9 gets Canelo in Sept. Then I want to see Lara/Cotto in November. Who's with me???????

[CubanGuyNYC]

Some interesting and valid points about Lara and his tendency to fight at opponent's levels.

I think a big part of that perception comes from the fact that Lara has an extremely one-dimensional offensive set. Everything about Lara's approach revolves around the two biggest things in his offensive arsenal, his straight left hand & his sweeping right hook. The counterpunching, the defensive "plodding", the methodical timing, all of it is to set up one of those two, or a combination of both.

As soon as a fighter effectively neutralizes either one, Lara becomes complacent, less-aggressive and relies solely on technical prowess to cruise through a fight.

I agree, Malik. I consider Lara somewhat limited, despite being a very good fighter. I think you've expressed this well, building upon what I've already said.

Boxingscene member "Garfios" has said many times that Erislandy didn't have Shields to train him for the Molina fight, that he had a tooth infection a couple of days before, etc. These may be true statements; but they're excuses, in my opinion. Lara acted similarly against Hernandez as he did against Carlos. The main difference is that Molina is a better, more resourceful fighter.

Maybe my criticism of Landy is based on my hopes for him. But the truth is, I don't regard him as elite, while I consider Gamboa and Rigo as such.