Erislandy Lara Biography

Erislandy Lara

---

Erislandy Lara Santoya (born April 11, 1983) is a Cuban boxer. The southpaw was the 2005 amateur world champion at welterweight.

Amateur career

In 2003 and 2004 Lara lost four times against two-time world champion Lorenzo Aragon.

In 2005 after Aragon stepped down Lara bested his countryman Yudel Jhonson Cedeno repeatedly and was sent to the world championships. There he avenged an earlier loss to Russian Andrey Balanov, beat American Boyd Melson, upset top favorite and Olympic champion Bakhtiyar Artayev (31–22) and won Gold against Magomed Nurutdinov (BLR).

Lara has lost twice to another Kazakh: Bakhyt Sarsekbayev. In their only meeting he beat American world champ Demetrius Andrade 9:4.

World Cup

    2005 in Moscow, Russia (welterweight)
        Defeated Manon Boonjumnong (Thailand) 21–9
        Defeated Stefan Dragomir (Romania) RSC-3
        Defeated Bakhyt Sarsekbayev (Kazakhstan) 39–33
        Lost to Andrey Balanov (Russia) 21–36

Defection

In 2007, Erislandy Lara, together with superstar Guillermo Rigondeaux, defected from Cuba before the PanAm games. Some weeks later he was caught by Brazilian authorities and was returned to Cuba, where he was banned from practicing boxing indefinitely.

In 2008 he made a second defection attempt, this time on a speed boat to Mexico, and succeeded. He has since made his way to Hamburg, Germany, where he joined former Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yan Barthelemy and Yuriorkis Gamboa in the Arena Box-Promotion stable.

Pro career

On January 1 of 2009, Lara made his ESPN debut against Rodrigo Aguiar, Lara won the fight via TKO in the 1st round.

His following fight came on February 20 against Keith Gross, Erislandy Lara dropped Gross with a left hand, Gross beat the count on wobbly legs, Lara continue unleashing combinations to the head and body, a left uppercutt finished the fight in the 1st round.

On May 2, 2009 in the Pacquiao vs Hatton undercard, Lara faced Chris Gray, Lara won the fight via Unanimous Decision.

On May 22, Lara faced Aging Edwin Vazquez, Erislandy Lara finished the fight with good combinations which prompted the referee to stop the fight, On that same night Cuban fellow Guillermo Rigondeaux made his pro debut, which he won via referee stoppage in the third round.

After beating Edwin Vazquez, Erislandy Lara went on to win 9 straight fights, including four consecutive first round knock out victories. On March 25, 2011, he fought Carlos Molina to a 10 round majority draw. The scores were 97–93 for Molina, 95–95 and 95–95 even.

Lara fought former WBO Welterweight champion Paul Williams on July 9, 2011, in Atlantic City, where he lost a majority decision. Judges Don Givens (116–114) and Hilton Whitaker II (115–114) both favored Williams, while Al Bennett scored it even at 114–114. Most fans and boxing analysts believed that Lara had been robbed by the judges

On April 20, 2012, Lara made his comeback to the ring after 9 months to fight Ronald Hearns for the WBC light middleweight semi-final eliminator spot at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The fight, which was settled to 10 rounds simply lasted 1 minute and 34 seconds as Lara delivered an impressive TKO in the very first round. Referee Keith Hughes decided to stop the fight after Lara had sent Hearns to the canvas once with a clean left hook that required count and immediately after delivered two fast combinations (one of which also required count) that seemed to be enough to overwhelm Hearns who seconds before the stop by the referee appeared to be defenseless upon Lara's final combination. Consequently Lara improved to a 16-1-1.

Lara is now represented by Al Haymon and Luis Decubas Jr.