Erislandry Lara is inching closer to his wish of seeing Canelo Alvarez in the ring. According to Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer the talks are heating up and the fight is taking shape.
“We are talking about what we want to do.”
“Would we pull him out to have him ready for the promotion? That’s part of the negotiations and discussions. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen because I don’t have it done. But if you want to put together a major pay-per-view, the dates are a bit too close.” – Schaefer
Schaefer is referring to Lara’s scheduled May 2nd fight against TMT member Ishe Smith. Smith isn’t considered a true threat to Lara but the possibility of injury is there and it would throw all chances for an early July fight out of the window.
The July 12th date is particularly important because HBO boxing plans on scheduling their GGG vs Chavez Jr PPV fight for July 19th. The ability to leap frog them and have boxing fans purchases the Showtime PPV is paramount, especially in households where back-to-back PPVs would be too costly.
Canelo is pushing for the fight and is set on landing Lara as his opponent.
“Canelo made it clear that his first choice is Lara because a lot of people, fans and media, feel he would be afraid of fighting somebody with the skills of Erislandy Lara, the same way people thought he wouldn’t fight Austin Trout. And you saw what happened,” says Schaefer.
Canelo has fought, and continues to fight, the best in his division and has yet to back down from a challenge. That’s something Floyd Mayweather can’t even hang his hat on.