His top competition, so far, would probably be Cintron and Gomez. Next, he's outclassed a shot Shane Mosely and was the first person to ever put Baldomir away and did so in devastating fashion. And for what it's worth -- Alvarez also holds a win against top-lightweight Miguel Vasquez. (Vasquez actually OUTWEIGHED Alvarez in their match.) Yes, Paul Williams and Carlos Molina are better than any of those names -- but Lara doesn't actually hold a win against EITHER of them.
Yeah JLO looked like **** breaking ortiz's jaw, performances like LARAS ain't gonna get him **** but empty seats and a Boxing audience pissed at the embarrassment of a fight he made... running filthy fighter, he thinks it's MMA with all those choke holds... look ****ing SCARED wheneve vanes would attack
Lara was in his ass. How vanes got more then two rounds is beyond me. Round after round, regardless of how low the output, lara landed harder and more shots. How do you not score the round for that guy when the other guy is landing glancing shots at best.
Note the qualification of "if you actually belong to his weight class." Alvarez has no problem taking on guys coming off impressive wins if they weigh below 154. Hopefully he manages to finally clean out the junior welterweight division in 2013.
Sorry, you said Alvarez has taken on more legit competition, not that he's defeated more legit competition. 2011 Gomez and Cintron though certainly make for an enviable resume...
Kid I know you know this by now. These haters don't care about that. It doesn't matter, they just want to hate. You can't make them make sense. If Lara had KOed Vanes in 5 rounds, they would have said he is a nobody. Even though he is ranked #2. There is no winning with blind haters.
Not a Lara fan or supporter but I agree Alvarez has done virtually nothing in the division, kinda pathetic really. I liked Saul when I first started seeing him fight but from his gift title after not making weight, then fighting JWW's I really can't take him seriously anymore. I bet on Vanes last night but I wouldn't even bet on Alvarez to beat Lara. Lara looks to land good hard precision punches, nothing wrong with that strategy at all because you can always score a knock out. When you are mostly throwing one power shot at a time you run the risk of losing on the cards, which is my major complaint with the Lara robbery brigade. He gives rounds away by not being busy enough, we've seen it time after time and boxers shouldn't be surprised by the judging anymore. If you are going to pick your shots carefully you better make sure you knock the guy out ot atleast shut him down completely so the judges won't be influenced by mistake, and I don't just mean covering up while the other fighter is hittin and slapping gloves and arms because even some of those can be seen as punches landed. Even though I am not sold on Lara, the only reason Alvarez is higher up on the food chain is money. Alvarez is the cash cow with a paper title, hasn't beat anyone that Lara couldn't. For all we know Lara catches him with a well timed punch and drops him like a sack of potatoes. As far as I'm concerned Williams and Martinez were the top guys in the division but now that they aren't in the picture everyone else is virtually starting from scratch and need to battle for position. I guess you can say Lara is #1 because he has atleast fought better names, but he needs to step it up if he wants to start winning decisions and break away from the pack. And no I don't consider Mayweather and Cotto to be the top of the division because other then fighting eachother they haven't really made any noise at the weight.
Considering his age, overall I still think he has. Doesn't mean his top opponents were better than Lara's top opponents.
Saul Alvarez has only fought ONE full-time non-junior-middlweight (Lopez) since completely moving to 154lbs himself. Alvarez, technically did go into the Hatton fight overweight (151.5) -- but that was also the only time Alvarez has ever weighed in over 150 pounds. Only after the fight with Hatton, has Alvarez consistently weighed a legitimate 154.
I'm so pissed at Lara not winning even though I favored him, I was hoping GBP was cornered into make the Lara Fighting so I can finally see this dirty cuban with low output get destroyed by the power punching Canelo. Oh well, again this **** dissapoints and shows that he ain't at an Elite level just another contender at 54 gunning for a title. Not surprised at ALL, always dissapoint at his highest levels. Maybe he should just face guys like hearns so the Lara Dick Loves can look good demanding he fight Canelo... Cause fighting like that ain't gonna get him ****. Vanes ****s up Lara in the Rematch.
Hard is debatable and the objective for scoring is 'clean, EFFECTIVE' punches. Same with Rios/Abril. If your clean "hard" punches don't slow the other guy down at all they aren't EFFECTIVE. I don't know how many times I've made this point. That and if fighters fight like they are happy to leave the outcome in the hands of the judges they have NO right to gripe if the judges don't go their way. Some judges score the contest as a fight first and boxing match second. Some seem to flip it or seem to not know the difference.
And if you're not landing at all, they're neither clean nor effective, no matter how much you're moving forward or getting off first.
The problem is that the Alvarez team and GBP act and opperate as if they are the top dogs. Lara, Molina, Kirkland have been doing all the work yet have to go to Alvarez with their hands out. :-(