Erislandy Lara

Erislandy Lara
Data
Birth Name	Erislandy Lara Santoya
Fight name	American Dream
Weight class	Light middleweight
nationality	Cuban
birthday	April 11, 1983
place of birth	Guantánamo
style	Southpaw
size	175 cm
Range	188 cm
Combat Statistics
Struggles	30th
Victories	25th
Knockout victories	14th
Defeats	3
draw	2
Profile in the BoxRec database

Erislandy Lara Santoya , (born April 11, 1983 in Guantánamo ) is a Cuban boxer and former world champion of the WBA and IBO in the light middleweight division.

amateur

Lara was Cuban junior champion in 2000 and won bronze at the Cuban championships in 2003, as well as silver in 2004. He failed each time against Lorenzo Aragón . Against this he was also defeated in the national Olympic qualification in 2004.

In 2005 he was finally Cuban welterweight champion by beating Yudel Johnson in the final . He then took part in the 2005 World Cup in Moscow , where he was only defeated in the final against Andrei Balanov . Previously, he had defeated Non Boonjumnong and Baqyt Särsekbajew , among others . At the 2005 World Championships in Mianyang , he then won the welterweight gold medal. He had defeated Serhiy Derewjantschenko , Vijender Kumar , this time Andrei Balanow, as well as Melson Boyd, Baqtiyar Artajew and Mahamed Nurudsinau .

In 2006 and 2007 he was again Cuban champion and also won the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena in 2006 , as well as qualifying for participation in the 2007 Pan American Games . In the final, he had defeated Demetrius Andrade .

Professional career

In July 2007 he sat with the double Olympic champion and world champion Guillermo Rigondeaux at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro from the Cuban team and signed a professional contract with Arena Box Promotion . A little later, however, they were picked up by the Brazilian federal police in Brazil without a valid visa and returned to Cuba under massive pressure from the Cuban government. In June 2008, Lara managed to escape from Cuba by speedboat in the direction of Cancún in Mexico and came to Germany after receiving preliminary entry documents. Rigondeaux managed to escape to Miami in February 2009 and also signed with Arena. Together with Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solís , they form a training team in Miami.

On July 9, 2011, Lara suffered his first loss as a professional in a WBC eliminator against Paul Williams on points. The evaluation of the judges was extremely controversial.

After victories against Ronald Hearns and Freddy Hernandez, he reached a draw against Vanes Martirosyan in November 2012 . In June 2013 Lara got the chance to box for the interim world champion title of the WBA. His opponent was Alfredo Angulo . The fight was extremely close. Lara scored more points with the judges because he was technically superior to Angulo and scored the clearer hits. But he had to accept two knockdowns in rounds four and nine. In lap 10, Lara hit Angulo's already very swollen eye again, whereupon he turned away from his opponent and went into his corner. The referee rated this as a task and Lara won the fight by technical knockout.

After a voluntary title defense against Austin Trout , Lara faced Saúl Álvarez in July 2014 . However, this fight was not a title fight because it took place in a catchweight, slightly above the light middleweight division. Lara lost this fight on points by a split decision. One judge scored 115-113 for Lara, another 115-113 for Álvarez. The third judge scored 117-111 for Álvarez. The result, especially the third, very high rating, aroused a lot of criticism, as the fight was very even for most observers.

After defending his WBA title against Ishe Smith , Lara faced Delvin Rodriguez in June 2015 . This was not only about the WBA title, but also the vacant title based on the IBO version. Lara won the fight clearly, all judges scored 120-107. Lara defended his title in November of the same year against Dejan Zavec , who had to give up in round 3 of the fight.

In May 2016 he defeated Vanes Martirosyan in a rematch and won in January 2017 by knockout against Yuri Foreman . In October 2017, he defeated Terrell Gausha before losing his title to Jarrett Hurd on April 7, 2018, just on points .

Web links

• Erislandy Lara in the BoxRec database
• Brief portrait on the Arena-Box-Promotion homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Press release Arena Box-Promotion: New Cuba-Star for ARENA Box-Promotion - Amateur World Champion Erislandy Lara in Hamburg ( Memento of the original from January 5th, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ fightnews.com: Rigondeaux defects, in Miami! dated February 23, 2009
3. ↑ fightnews.com: Williams punished, but gets win ( Memento of the original from December 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated July 9, 2011