By: Sean Crose
Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga are meeting this Saturday night in Las Vegas as the main event of a pay per view card. Most are expecting Canelo to win, and with good reason. Canelo may be getting a bit long in the figurative tooth, but there’s no denying a Berlanga win would rightly shock the fight world to its core. The truth is that this weekends co-main event, not the main event itself, may well be the more interesting matchup this Mexican Independence Day weekend. While Erislandy Lara and Danny Garcia might be a bit over the hill like Canelo, they’ve been effective in this business long enough to have made very successful careers for themselves.
Garcia has made himself famous through his counterpunching abilities. He’s defeated a plethora of name competition over the years including Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson, and Amir Khan. And those fights he’s lost have been exceedingly close affairs against the likes of Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, and Shawn Porter. Oh, and the Philly native can hit. Khan, Paulie Malignaggi, and Brandon Rios can each attest to how hard the fighter nicknamed “Swift” can swat. Although he’s not known as a knockout artist, Garcia can turn out the lights if given the opportunity.
As for Lara, he’s been one of the great underrated fighters of the past ten plus years. There was talk back in the day of the man actually fighting Mayweather, though that never seemed unlikely. For although he goes by the nickname “The American Dream,” Lara knows how to fight like a Cuban master (he escaped Cuba for America, after all). Lara isn’t just slippery, though. The veteran has stopped four out of his last five opponents. Like Garcia, Lara isn’t known as a knockout artist. Just like Garcia, though, Lara can end the night early when the opportunity rises.
So, who wins on Saturday night? The truth is that, good as he is, I’ve never seen Garcia being better than Lara. Unless one or both of the two combatants suddenly become ancient Saturday night, I expect Lara to get the better of it in a VERY tight fight. Still, I see the judges’ giving the win to Garcia. He’s just the more popular of the two, and such things can unfortunately make a difference in the world of boxing.
Still, it will be good to see these seasoned pros get it on in the ring. Theirs is frankly the best match of the weekend.