BEFORE he steps into the ring to face Mexican superstar Saul Canelo Alvarez, WBA light-middleweight boss Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara worked out for the media and talked about his upcoming July 12 PPV main event on “Honor & Glory”.
He explained why he’s so confident of victory, and of his annoyance that Alvarez demanded the fight be set at 155lbs, and his plans for the future.
Lara on if he was surprised that Canelo took the fight…
“Originally I thought he would never take the fight because I confronted him in person and he said, ‘No this is not how you make fights.’ Then after the fans saw that he was ducking me on Twitter, he had no choice but to be a man and take the challenge.”
Lara on what he has to do differently in this fight…
“Nothing has to change. I just need to do the same things I always do and train. If I focus on training to win, there’s no one in the world that can beat me.”
Lara on what a win against Canelo means to him…
“It means everything to me. For me to demonstrate to the world that I’m not just better than him, but that I’m 150 percent better than him, means everything to me. Like I said before, I’m going to take him to Cuban school.”
Lara on Canelo saying he was scared and trembling when he approached him after the Mayweather fight…
“He’s talking nonsense. He knows I’m not scared of anyone so he’s trying to pump himself up to make him believe that I’m scared of him. The fact is he’s a very insecure fighter who knows he’s going to lose. For him to say these things is a bad sign for him. He’s lost and confused.”
Lara on why Canelo refused to fight for the belt and if he felt disrespected…
“Canelo can’t make the weight so he refused to fight for the title. It’s very disrespectful and my motivation to beat him has increased because of it.”
Lara on fighting Floyd Mayweather in one of his last three fights…
“Right now my focus is on Canelo and once I beat him then I’ll be looking at other options. For sure 100 per cent I want Floyd Mayweather after this fight. He’s considered the best fighter in the world and I want to be the first one to dethrone him.”
