On Friday night in San Antonio, Texas, Erislandy Lara (20-2-2 12 KO) dominated Ishe Smith (26-7 12 KO) with scores of 119- 109 X 2 and 117-111 to retain his WBA super welterweight title.
Smith had a decent opening round but it may have been by Lara’s design as he stated after the fight “The first round, I wanted to see exactly how he fought, what his moments were, I’ve never seen him before, after that, I dominated every single round”
Dominate he did, like a painter, the ring his canvas. He paints a masterpiece utilizing his southpaw stance.
Lara used the right jab as his measuring stick while landing beautifully timed straight lefts to the body and head. Lara frustrated Smith and forced him to adjust his game plan and second guess his next move. He confused Smith utilizing angles and alternating his level from low to high. When Smith did cut the ring off he was able to land body shots but Lara would parry away leaving Smith swinging at air.
Hit and don’t get hit, it’s the sweetest of sciences and the ring is his lab. There are some that don’t care for Lara’s style and that’s ok, his style is unique to him and he makes no apologies nor should he.
After the fight Lara spoke about who he would like to face next.
“I want to fight the best, I want to fight Floyd Mayweather, that’s one of the best fighters in the world, that’s who I want too fight, I want to test myself against the best. I already beat Canelo and we beat everybody else in the division”
No matter who it is, they will have their hands full with one of the best in the game.
Standing-8 