Erislandy Lara, Danny Garcia eye victory and a place in Canastota

LAS VEGAS – Whenever Saul "Canelo" Alvarez decides to step away from boxing, he will unquestionably find himself, three years later and at the first opportunity, in Canastota, New York, being inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Whether any of the other competitors on Saturday’s card at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas will eventually find their way there is far from clear, but there is a case to be made that the two with the strongest arguments will be facing each other in Saturday’s co-main event.

When it was suggested to Erislandy Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs), who puts his WBA middleweight title on the line against former two-weight world titlist Danny Garcia, that a Garcia victory would be the ticket that granted the Philadelphian entry to the most exclusive of boxing clubs, the Cuban-born emigre countered that the same was every bit as true of him.

“Absolutely,” he told BoxingScene at the MGM Grand on Tuesday. “100 percent. I feel with everything I’ve accomplished so far, winning on Saturday puts me at a level where I can be considered a Hall of Famer.”

Brief recourse to Lara’s career record supports the contention that he is at least on the bubble for enshrinement. It has been 11 years since he dropped a decision to Alvarez in what was considered a controversial verdict, and 13 years since he was outpointed by Paul Williams in a verdict that was immediately branded borderline larcenous. Since then, he has been defeated just once, and it took a Fight-of-the-Year performance by Jarrett Hurd to eke out a split decision win in April 2018. Whether a career of wins over the likes of Terrell Gausha, Yuri Foreman, Ishe Smith, and Austin Trout is enough for his plaque to be mounted alongside the best of the best from a century and change of professional pugilism is a different matter, but a continued run at the top of the 160 pound division in what has so far been a surprisingly entertaining coda to a lengthy career might garner him enough votes.

It seems less likely that a win over Garcia would be sufficient, however. Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs) has undoubtedly had an impressive career, and from 2011 to 2017, a run of wins against the likes of Nate Campbell, Kendall Holt, Erik Morales, Amir Khan, Zab Judah, Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson, Paulie Malignaggi, and Robert Guerrero certainly had him at least pointed toward Canastota. Since then, however, his career has had downs as well as ups and has taken on an intermittence as he has aged.

Losses to Keith Thurman and Shawn porter in 2017 and 2018 were by the thinnest of margins: just one more round in his favor would have turned both from losses to draws, but it is on the shoals of such fine margins that other Hall-of-Fame candidacies have foundered in the past. Since suffering his third decision loss, to Errol Spence, in December 2020, he has fought just once, scoring a majority decision win over Jose Benavidez in July 2022; that win was at 154 pounds after a career at 140 and 147, and Saturday marks his first foray into the middleweight division.

Given the inactivity and the weight jump, it’s doubtful Lara would accrue much credit from anything other than a dominant win over his fellow Hall-of-Famer wannabe; but, speaking at the grand arrivals ceremony at the MGM Grand on Tuesday, Lara took issue with the notion that he had any in-built advantages over Garcia.

“I don’t care how Danny Garcia may show up,” he said. “I’m just happy to be on this card, and I don’t worry about whether I have any kind of advantage, weight or otherwise.”

Garcia himself also dismissed any concerns about his weight or inactivity.

“I feel great,” he said. “I had a great training camp. I had good sparring. I did everything in the gym. None of that [talk] is going to matter. I’m ready.”

At 41 years old, Lara is the older fighter, although at 36 Garcia isn’t too far behind. When it was suggested to Garcia that victory on Saturday would be a good point at which to retire, the Philadelphian didn’t exactly dismiss the notion even if he didn’t embrace it, either.

“It's always great to go out on top, but you never know,” he said. “The sky's the limit after this. So my focus is on winning this fight, and I’m not really thinking about what's next.”

Lara, however, apparently is, even with a pro career that began more than 16 years ago.

“My plan is to show that I’m the best at 160 pounds, and I still want to fight the best of the best for more time to come.”

“This is not new to me,” countered Garcia. “I’ve been here for a long time. I’m going to go out and have fun.”

“I see myself winning,” asserted Lara. “100 percent. I don’t know how, whether by knockout or because of the judges. All I know is that I’m going to come out on top.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcasted about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is www.kieranmulvaney.com.