39 year old Lara vs 40 year old GGG - WBA MW Unification

I wrote this on here in 2015, so 7 years ago. It's not my most well written diatribe, but... it's decent enough. Well, none of my thoughts have changed. GGG violently KO's any version of Lara.


Okay I'll get the initial issues out of the way first, Lara is represented by Haymon, Gennady Golovkin works with HBO, HBO do not do business with Haymon, therefore the Golovkin Vs. Lara match will not get made. In all likelihood Lara doesn't want it to get made either. He knows full well what the political climate between Haymon and HBO is like, and based on his inability to draw an audience due to his at times incredibly dull style, they will not go out of their way to thaw relations with Al Haymon who's actively been attempting to undermine and crush HBO for years now, just to make a PPV that absolutely no one will buy, it doesn't make economic sense for HBO pursue long arduous negotiations that will ultimately grind to a halt and not make them a dime in revenue, we're not talking about Money Vs. Pac here. It would be a waste of their time. But Lara knows this very well and he's using GGG's name and the idea that GGG is somehow scared of him to build up this false image of a terrifying uber skilled boogieman that everyone is terrified to face and that everyone is ducking, for his own economic well being, he wants in the worst way to have the aura of a badass about him, he wants the false bragging rights. And if any of you don't realize that, then his manipulation of the situation and you is working just the way he wanted it too.


Now on to the hypothetical match itself. Lara would most likely end up being brutally knocked out cold by Golovkin and here is why.

Lara's career in reality is a lot of smoke and mirrors, many of his matches have been incredibly close affairs frequently against opponents whose lack of skill should not have posed such a master of the sweet science as himself the slightest problem, but they do. Why is that, its because Lara is not nearly as good as he tries to sell himself as, or many of you seem to believe him to be.

Let's start with the Williams Robbery. Lara probably should have won the decision in that match, however Paul threw over 1000 punches in that match and only landed a paltry 200, but Lara only landed 24 more, with a grand total of 224. So to many judges, you could see how someone who is throwing such a ridiculously high number of punches and landing almost the same amount, may nick a few more rounds due to the appearance of outworking the more accurate Lara. I scored the match for Lara, but it wasn't the landslide everyone makes it out to be. His strategy wasn't brilliant in the least, he knew by studying Williams losses that he's open to an absurd amount of lefts usually with no adjustment, he followed the game plan laid out by Quintana and Martinez before him.

The Molina fight should be considered a loss, not even a MD draw, he was smothered, mugged and outworked by a fighter that K9 Bundrage was smart enough to come up with a strategy to beat, yet Lara couldn't make the needed adjustments. Molina being a rhythm breaker relies on fighters being predictable and usually not adjusting and sticking with their predictable course of action to work his unpleasant to watch magic, K9 used his awkward incredibly unpredictable style to his advantage, it's hard to break an off kilter rhythm like his, yet Lara looked pretty bad and let Molina outsmart him, shouldn't Lara have figured out what to do instead of the same thing over and over again that clearly wasn't working, not that intelligent of the master boxer was it?

On to Vanes, the match was a draw at the time of the cut, however it did appear that Lara was taking control of the match at the time of the stoppage. But Vanes while good enough to expose a Charlo and the less than impressive Willie Nelson, he was made to look amateurish against Andrade who most wouldn't rate above Lara, all the while he gave Lara troubles by out thinking him in their very close match, that shouldn't have even been close for such an accomplished talent like Lara the Great.

But he did school Trout didn't he? Something that Canelo and Cotto couldn't accomplish, so that makes him better than them right?....wrong. It was nothing more than a terrible style clash. Austin is a southpaw and Lara is a southpaw, neither one of the looked great but because Trout was just a little bit slower Lara always managed to get off first and won the match in dull mind numbingly tedious fashion, Trout allowed it to be a chess match and played into Lara's hands and it paid off that time.

The Canelo match was close and Lara did very well, landing the cleaner and effective counters early in the match, that is until Canelo started walking through those counters and got to Lara's body a few times landing vicious body shots and Lara jumped on his bike and hauled ass like he was in a Tour De France time trial. He lost the fight because he didn't like the way Canelo's body shots felt and ran like hell to avoid the pain, the judges didn't like that..... it's as simple as that. That being said, I scored it for Lara.

But on to the real problem he'll face if he ever fought Gennady Golovkin. That would be the Alfredo Angulo match, the reality is Perro Angulo is an incredibly one dimensional fighter who is the epitome of a mindless face first plodder, he walked after Lara and threw punches, most of them were slipped and a few got through and landed, Perro doesn't know how to cut of the ring, so he chased him, yet even with his limited skills he was able to trap Erislandy along the ropes and pound him to the body with Left Hooks, and what happened when he landed that left hook of his, Lara cringed and involuntarily dropped his right hand and boom down goes Lara from a picture perfect left hook to the chin. And for that very reason GGG would brutally KO Lara.


And for all of the people who don't seem to realize the skill level of Gennady Golovkin let me explain it to you. Skillwise he's as an offensive fighter more well rounded and better than Lara is as a defensive fighter, Lara can slip punches and counter with his straight left or right jab and run. Gennady is far more complex than Lara, for all the talk about being fans of the sweet science, how is it that many of his detractors seem to miss all of his subtleties, his slight head movements just enough to roll with punches or slip them in close is similar to Chocolatito, his shifting which is essentially through shifting the weight distribution and forward momentum, it enhances the ability to sit down on your punches while moving, in close or while inside fighting. He's a very accurate counter punching, taking a half step back, parries and subtle head movements to take the steam off or avoid clean shots, usually followed by countering with his devastating jab. His stiff brutal jab that is frequently used to set up his even more brutal power punches, his brilliant punch placement and punch selection, his ability find or make openings, and his mastery of most types of punches, his brutal twisting shots to the ribs, his ability to cut the off the ring which is brilliant unlike Angulo he never follows, his footwork gets him in position right where he wants to be at all times terrifying opponents because they cannot escape him no matter what they do, he is the epitome of an effective aggressor, his ability to set traps, his constant pressure which keeps his opponents in a paralyzing state of paranoia, that has them second guessing their every move out of fear they'll run into something big. Gennady Golovkin is many levels above the limited Lara in the skill department, and if they ever fought GGG would make what Angulo did to him look like child's play. GGG also feasts more easily on counter punchers than most styles. His pressure and cutting off of the ring got him in position to repeatedly nail and drop Willie Monroe Jr, a very skilled counter puncher, and what happened after than, Willie realize with his retreating countering style he didn't stand a chance in hell of winning and instead chose to man up and slug it out with him like a man.....which failed as well.

Oh and that left hook to the ribs followed by the left hook to the head that worked for Angulo, GGG loves doing that.:deal Only difference is Lara wouldn't get up this time without smelling salts.

Lara did school Ishe and Delvin you can always cling to that if it makes you feel better.