This Saturday night, July 12th, 2014 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada will see top boxers Erislandy Lara and Saul Alvarez face each other in a light middleweight match-up. With the fight coming up fast, ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is a (-195) favorite over the Cuban Lara, who returns (+165) when yo look at the lines at BETDSI.
As expected, Alvarez is favored with the masses, as the young Mexican star and his team at Golden Boy have done an excellent job of marketing him. In Mexico, he is a big star and he has already hit the big money for the last few matches, and he is starting to have a Pacquiao-like effect in Mexico, and that is that the whole country stops to watch him fight.
What is interesting is that most boxing experts see this fight as a much closer fight than the roughly two to one odds that are popping up at the books. Lara, at 19-1-2 as a professional, brings a high skill, high precision attack to the match that leave many observers thinking he has a very good chance at winning this match.
The match is at a catch weight of 155 lbs, meaning it is at Light Middleweight. Lara has been fighting his whole career at this weight, and he is a long, lean fighter who is fast. Now Mayweather was fast, and Alfredo Angulo was long and lean, but Lara is able to combine the two to make a package that ‘Canelo’ may not have seen before.
Lara is a master boxer with a massive amateur boxer, and he is going to need to box to win this fight. He is going to have to use his skills to beat Alvarez to the punch and outbox him, and he will most likely be leaving it to the judges if it goes that route.
But ‘Canelo’ has become an excellent boxer in his own right, and he will have a chance to show that in a duel. Should he be getting the worst of it, Canelo will look for a slugfest on the inside, where he can work the body and try to pin down Lara. Lara has been down in his professional career, and ‘Canelo’ would love to test the chin of Lara.
