Erislandy Lara’s Controversial Advice for Terence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez: Will it Work?

Erislandy Lara says Terence Crawford has to stay on the move and not let Canelo Alvarez hit him on the arms in their fight on September 13th. The Cuban Lara lost a 12-round split decision to Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) in 2014, and had success by jabbing from the outside.

Lara fought too defensively, leaving the judges no choice but to give it to Canelo, who took more chances and landed the harder punches.

Turki Alalshikh’s Expectations

Erislandy now wants Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to fight similarly and thinks it’ll work. That’ll go over real well with Turki Alalshikh if Crawford moves for 12 rounds, mimicking the style Lara and William Scull used against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo.

“I see it as an interesting 50-50 fight. I feel that Canelo is very strong right now, and I want to see how Crawford handles the power, especially in the early rounds, and what’s going to happen,” said Erislandy Lara to Fighthype, discussing the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford clash in September.

Canelo is going to be throwing with power the entire fight, not just the early rounds. Crawford is going to have to take those shots for 12 rounds. If he runs like he did against Israil Madrimov last August, he’ll lose because the judges aren’t going to gift him another decision like they did in that fight. Madrimov beat Crawford, but the judges went with the A-side fighter.

“I remember fighting Canelo 14 years ago [correction: 11 years ago in 2014]. I remember, I used my legs real good. As long as Crawford uses his legs and doesn’t let Canelo hit him in the arms and beat him up on the arms, he has a very good chance of winning,” said Lara.

Crawford’s $50M Strategy

Crawford is being paid $50 million for this fight against Canelo. He would be crazy if he chose to adopt the Jerry style that Erislandy Lara recommends. This isn’t the much smaller purse Lara received when he fought Canelo over a decade ago.

Bud is getting paid tens of millions of dollars by Turki Alalshikh, who has labeled this ‘The Fight of the Century.’ Given the hype surrounding the fight and the massive purse that Terence is receiving, it would be a mistake on his part to use his legs and run the way Lara did.

Even if Crawford did obediently follow Lara’s advice, the large crowd that would be attending the event at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas would boo him out of the building. This is Las Vegas. They have no patience for Tom and Jerry fights in this city.

2014 Canelo Fight Lessons

That advice from Lara won’t be practical against Canelo. It didn’t work for Erislandy in 2014, as he moved too much, not taking chances, and trying to win a cheap decision by throwing only jabs. Canelo was the one pressing the entire fight, landing hard punches whenever he could catch up to Lara.

The style that Erislandy used against Alvarez was similar to the one that fellow Cuban William Scull utilized against him last May. He didn’t want to engage and ran around the ring, throwing jabs and occasionally combinations when Canelo would trap him. Scull fought better than Lara did, but there was no chance the judges were going to give him the decision because he was too passive.