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Erislandy Lara is coming off a career-best performance against Paul Williams, but it looks like he also inherited Tall Paul's problems. The punisher used to be one of the most avoided men in boxing until Sergio Martinez shattered the myth of Paul Williams. Lara technically lost to Paul Williams but almost everyone in boxing agrees that this was the robbery of the year last year. Lara completely dominated Williams, landing the overhand right with such regularity that the HBO team was calling for Williams to retire. Now Lara is having difficulty finding a big fight so he's going about it the old fashioned way, by calling out everyone in a nearby weight class. Ryan Burton of Boxing Scene reports some of the quotes from Lara's recent appearance on Boxing Lab. Lara first talked about being on the Berto-Ortiz undercard.
"It is a great opportunity to fight on the Berto-Ortiz card. We can show what we can do versus Hearns and go from there. We think Golden Boy will turn us right back around in another fight. We will be ready to fight (Canelo) Alvarez right after."
First of all, Lara is never ever ever going to allowed anywhere near Alvarez. It's the same issue the potential Martinez-Chavez Jr. fight. Lara is far too dangerous and does not have any name recognition. Good on Lara for trying.
"We would go down to 147 for the right opportunity. We would go down to fight the Berto-Ortiz winner at 147 and then look to fight Mayweather."
Lara could maybe get the loser of Berto-Ortiz but he has no chance of getting the winner. No one is going to pay $2 million for Lara versus either of those fighters because Lara is simply not worth it. Then Lara finishes it off with another call out.
"The fight I want the most is Sergio Martinez. He is the best fighter out there and we want to fight the best. We also want to fight Canelo but Canelo obviously is nowhere near Martinez's level."
So Martinez is this most realistic possibility since Sergio Martinez has a very similar problem and honestly it could be a decent scrap. I really feel bad for Lara because he did extremely well in his last fight and deserves to get a decent payday. However, boxing isn't fair and good fighters get screwed. Who do you guys think Lara should fight next?