The Cuban Crisis: Who's afraid of Erislandy Lara?

The talented light middleweight contender Erislandy Lara was an outstanding amateur fighter and a welterweight gold medalist at the 2005 World Amateur Championships who defected from Cuba in 2008 to seek the proverbial greener pasture as a prizefighter. In just a few years, he has amassed a solid record of 17-1-1 with 11 knockouts in 19 professional fights.

But despite being a gifted and very skilled boxer, Lara's boxing career has been on a rollercoaster ride. He remains outside of the equation when it comes to high-prized, high-stakes fights.

But Erislandy Lara has high hopes for his future and one of his aspirations is to land the potentially lucrative Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez fight.

To the fighters that he has faced, Erislandy Lara was a tough puzzle to break. To many boxing observers, Erislandy Lara remains an enigma. They lament the fact that consistency is not one of the Cuban fighter's strongest suits. In many instances, Lara seems contented to just get by with a so-so effort in a fight and then show up as the technical wizard that he is in the next one. But he can also be spectacular at times.

Let us just look back at his last three fights before his stay-active bout with Freddy Hernandez on ShoBox last Saturday night at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, CA.

Erislandy Lara got lucky to eke out a draw with Carlos Molina in a fight that he should have lost, and was unlucky to lose via majority decision in a fight that he should have won against Paul Williams after literally and figuratively punishing The Punisher for 12 rounds. (As a sidenote: The judges Don Givens, Hilton Whitaker II and Al Bennett who worked that night were eventually suspended by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission.)

After a lay-off of nine months, Lara got back on track with a first round demolition of Detroit's Ronald Hearns. It took Lara just 1 minute and 34 seconds to send the son of the legendary Motor City Cobra and recent Hall of Fame inductee Tommy 'Hitman' Hearns into the abyss of mediocrity.

In last Saturday's 10-round unanimous decision over Freddy Hernandez, Erislandy Lara proved once again why many marquee fighters fear him and promoters would not let their 'prized' fighters face him. He conducted a master class and simply outclassed the tough and durable veteran Freddy Hernandez with ease.

Erislandy Lara was very accurate and methodical with his punches, on numerous times he would land several combos punctuated by his power lefts on Fernandez, and when the Mexican fighter tried to retaliate, he found the Cuban an elusive target to hit.

Erislanday Lara gave Freddy Hernandez a lot of angles; he would dart in and out of the kill zone to Freddy Hernandez's consternation. The Mexican fighter was reduced to firing mostly  blanks and insignificant shots which leads more to his frustrations.

Erislandy Lara was on a different class and was in cruise control throughout the fight. He showed a full arsenal of punches and some defensive gems against a game fighter but with a very limited firepower.

Even when Erislandy Lara was deducted a point in round seven for a headbutt (yes, there were numerous headbutts and low blows from both fighters that the referee failed to call or deliberately ignored), there is no doubt that he was way ahead in the cards.

Erislandy Lara exhibited good ring generalship; he made Freddy Hernandez miss a lot of his shots while potshotting him with great success in return. Lara knows when to engage and disengage to his advantage. Even when Freddy Hernandez continued to pursue his elusive prey, Erislandy Lara was a picture of a confident and very relaxed fighter down the stretch. Freddy Hernandez was game but ineffective and on the receiving end of Lara's counters. The wide talent and skills disparity was on display with Lara being the stronger and more accurate puncher.

If Erislandy Lara was a painter, we can safely say that he made Freddy Hernandez's face his canvas. The post fight picture of the two fighters was a study in contrast; Lara's face was unmarked while Hernandez's face looked like a bad replica of a Picasso abstract.

Thus, it could be said that Erislandy Lara cruised to another victory to pad his resume last Saturday night. Freddy Hernandez gave the fight his all, but his all was not good enough. He was simply outfought, outhustled and outgunned by a superior fighter.

The decision was unanimous with Erislandy Lara winning by a wide margin on two judges' scorecards, 99-90 and 98-91. The other judge, David Denkin though needs to see his eye doctor as soon as possible as he scored the one-sided fight with a questionable 95-94 score.

Punch Statistics showed Erislandy Lara outlanding his foe by a huge margin. Lara landed 44% of his total punches (246 of 561) to Hernandez' woeful 18% (128 of 710). The power punches were in Lara's favor as well as he landed 64% (217 of 339) of his bombs compared to an anemic 23% (115 of 493) of Hernandez.

Another night, another fight in the life of the young Cuban fighter, but by pitching a shutout against a rugged veteran, we asked ourselves whether Erislandy Lara just shot himself in the foot by eliminating himself from the Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez sweepstakes.

If Oscar de la Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions are true to their pronouncements that they will give the fans the great fights that they crave, then a showdown between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Erislandy Lara is a no-brainer.

But if after this fight, Erislandy Lara returns to toil under the radar and continue to fight nondescript fighters, then we can now say that Erislandy Lara's ring exploits act as both a blessing and a curse for his boxing career. Yes, Erislandy Lara is a prisoner of his talent and skills.

Free Erislandy Lara.

*photo credit: Tom Casino/SHOWTIME
Note: This article was published on Detroit Fight Sports Examiner

ShoBox: Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage spanks Spinks anew, barks at Canelo

Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage, Detroit's 39-year old IBF junior middleweight champion, retained his crown last Saturday night against familiar foe, Cory Spinks, the same fighter he dethroned via 5th round TKO about two years ago in St. Louis, MO.


This time around, the so-called rematch between the two old protagonists at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, CA airing via Showtime's ShoBox: The Next Generation franchise followed almost the same script as the last time these two fighters met in St. Louis, albeit this time Cory Spinks lasted two more rounds longer than their first fight.

Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage's magical night began with less than a minute to go in the first round when he suddenly unleashed a powerful overhand right to the face of Cory Spinks, sending the game challenger crashing to the canvas.

But Cory Spinks was able to get up, and desperately grabbed Bundrage for survival, an act that led to both fighters falling to the ground. It was an omen of things to come as the two fighters turned their championship duel into a rough and tumble, one with neither fighter giving an inch or so it seems.

The fight was both beautiful and ugly as both fighters began to grab and hold, clinching and sneaking punches in close quarters, trying to impose their will on each other. Spinks, the bigger guy, was keen on roughing up the smaller Bundrage, but the Detroit fighter was game enough to play the game that his opponent was playing as he began to sneak an uppercut or two in between hugs and clinches.

By the third round, Cory Spinks' right eye began to swell, a recurrent target of Bundrage's active left jabs while Spinks tried to take his fight to Bundrage's body. Still, Cornelius' right bombs were landing on target, with Spinks looking helpless in evading them.

The fight went on its usual phase with Cory Spinks hugging, holding and even wrestling Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage for control, but the Kronk fighter also gave his opponent a dose of his own medicine. 

As the fight wore on, the fighters' conditioning was being tested; both fighters are showing signs of exhaustion, breathing heavily through their mouths while throwing blows few and far between, until Bundrage suddenly connected with a chopping right to the face that again buckled Spinks' legs in round 6. Despite Cory Spinks' desperate attempt to counter his impending doom by trying to dig deep into Bundrage's body, from that time on, the outcome was slowly but surely in Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage's favor.

The seventh round proved to be Cory Spinks' downfall as another powerful right hand sent him to the canvas. Showing his heart, the fighter from St. Louis got up and desperately tried to grab his opponent once more, but he ate another powerful right that sent him on the seat of his pants again with time down to 1:54.

It was like a fast-paced action movie from then on as Cory Spinks tried several evasive maneuvers to delay the inevitable -- slips, holds, backtracks and grabs -- but Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage would have none of it as he continued to move and unleashed a barrage of punches (got away with a few low blows) at his hapless opponent.

And with 27 seconds left in the round, Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage finally caught Cory Spinks with his patented right hand bomb that finally crumbled not only Spinks' body, but also his will to fight. Down on all fours, the referee counted Cory Spinks out as Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage went down on his knees, barked and celebrated his victory, improving his record to 32-4-0-1 with 19 knockouts.

Fight statistics showed that en route to the seventh round knockout,  Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage outlanded Cory Spinks 32% (97 0f 301) to 30% (75 of 247) of total punches. While Spinks has a negligible margin in jabs 27% (35 of 132) to 19% (31 of 160), Bundrage connected more power punches 47% (66 of 141) to 35% (40 of 115) which was really the story of the championship fight.

There is no question in many boxing observers' mind that Cory Spinks (39-7, 11 KOs), after a long career, should call it a day. But like many fighters before him who refused to accept the call of father time, he was in denial: "I'm not goin' to stop my career, I'm better than that and I know that, it's just his night tonight, I take my hat off to him."

Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage proved that despite his age and the long lay-off, he is still capable of giving us a good fight on any given night. Bundrage is a rugged, aggressive, scrappy and unorthodox fighter who barks his way around the ring. He will always be a handful to any fighter out there, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez included.

In the post-fight interview, IBF junior middleweight champion Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage barks at WBC light middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo Alvarez to take notice: "The dog is coming, arf arf!"

But only if Cornelius 'K9' Bundrage's handlers will not put his boxing career on the cold cage again.


Note: This article was previously published on Detroit Fight Sports Examiner