By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Erislandy Lara doesn’t want what he feels happened to him to happen to Daniel Jacobs.
That’s why he advised Jacobs on Thursday to press for a knockout when he squares off against Canelo Alvarez on May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Lara lost a debatable split decision to Alvarez in July 2014 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
The Cuban southpaw swears nearly five years later that there’s no way he lost that extremely competitive fight. Judges Dave Moretti (115-113) and Levi Martinez (117-111) scored that fight for Alvarez, who lost 115-113 to Lara on the card of judge Jerry Roth.
Mexico’s Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs) since has fought to a highly controversial draw with Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin and edged Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) by majority decision in their middleweight championship rematch in Las Vegas. Each of those 12-round bouts took place at T-Mobile Arena.
The 35-year-old Lara (25-3-2, 14 KOs) is focused now on his 12-round, 154-pound title fight against Argentina’s Brian Castano (15-0, 11 KOs) on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (Showtime; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT). He is looking forward, though, to watching Alvarez and Jacobs go at it in two months.
“Danny Jacobs is a great fighter,” Lara told BoxingScene.com following a press conference Thursday at Barclays Center. “I think he’s got a hell of a shot to win the fight. Obviously, Canelo’s a great fighter himself. I don’t think anyone stands a chance to win a decision in Las Vegas against Canelo Alvarez. It’s almost impossible sometimes to get a fair decision in Las Vegas – period – for any fighter.”
Alvarez has displayed one of boxing’s sturdiest chins at the elite level, but Lara believes the taller Jacobs could stop the WBA/WBC middleweight champion.
“Any fighter can be knocked out,” Lara said. “My advice to Jacobs is to go after Canelo early and try to hurt him, let Canelo know that he’s the boss. Any fighter can be hurt, but obviously Canelo has shown to have a great chin, too. That’s why they fight the fights.”
Alvarez and Brooklyn’s Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) will continue the three-city press tour to promote their DAZN main event Friday in Mexico City. The junket will conclude at a press conference Monday in Los Angeles.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.