In 2014, the affair between Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara divided opinion among fans and the media.
The Mexican superstar signed a contract to fight Lara in July 2014, less than a year after suffering the first loss to Floyd Mayweather in his young and prolific professional boxing career.
Few expected the young player from Guadalajara to face such a tough test so soon.
In September 2013, Canelo was completely dominated by Mayweather over 12 rounds, even though the scorecards didn't reflect how overwhelming “TBE's” victory was.
But far from recovering, Canelo returned to the ring six months later and won a near-decisive 10th-round knockout victory over a tenacious Alfredo Angulo.
Looking to ride that winning momentum, he'll face accomplished southpaw Lara in a bout to determine the number one contender at super welterweight after both Mayweather and Miguel Cotto were eliminated from the division.
At the time, Lara had yet to hold a world title, but he was fresh off an impressive win over former WBA super welterweight “legal” belt holder Austin Trout and was ranked No. 2 in Ring Magazine's 154-pound division.
The Cuban currently holds the WBA middleweight title at age 41, making him boxing's oldest active world champion, but more on that later.
Canelo and Lara battled it out over 12 hard-fought rounds at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, with Canelo taking the offensive role while “The American Dream” landed jabs and was often on the back foot.
Lara was very effective with his straight left hand, but Canelo's best work came from his flurry of punches from the pocket.
In the end, the judges favored Canelo’s sustained pressure and harder punches, with both Levi Martinez (117-111) and Dave Moretti (115-113) scoring the fight in his favor.
Third official Jerry Ross ruled the fight 115-113 in favor of Lara, which many critics and fans felt was the correct decision.
Immediately afterwards, the boxing forum was filled with cries of “robbery” and, speaking to the media at the post-fight press conference, Lara could not hide his indignation at the result.
“None of the body shots hurt and there were no head shots,” he said through a translator.
“One thing I can say is that Levi Martinez is [Gabriel] Campillo's punch [Beibut] Shumenov fights in the exact same style, 117-111, and tonight the result is the opposite.
“What does that mean? I don't understand.”
Compubox punch statistics for the bout showed that Lara landed 10 more punches than Canelo during the fight, but the Mexican landed 36 more power punches.
A media scorecard provided by Boxing News revealed that of 89 journalists, 39 percent scored the fight in favor of Canelo, 33 percent scored it in favor of Lara, and 28 percent felt it should have been a draw.
Canelo established himself as the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world in the late 2010s and early 2020s, winning world titles at middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight and establishing himself as the undisputed leader in the 168-pound division.
Lara, on the other hand, has shown his longevity by holding the WBA super welterweight and middleweight titles between his mid-30s and early 40s.
He had held the “regular” belt since 2019 but was promoted to official WBA middleweight world champion last year.
This made him, at age 40, the oldest titleholder in boxing today.
He later knocked out Michael Zerafa to retain the title and remains a world champion to this day, at age 41.
