1. Erislandy Lara Santoya was born on 11 April 1983 and is a Cuban-American professional boxer.
61 Facts About Erislandy Lara
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Erislandy Lara has held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the World Boxing Association middleweight title since 2023.
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Erislandy Lara was captain of the Cuban national amateur team, winning a welterweight gold medal at the 2005 World Championships as well as three consecutive Cuban national championships from 2005 to 2007.
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In 2003 and 2004, Erislandy Lara lost four times against two-time world champion Lorenzo Aragon.
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In 2005 after Aragon stepped down, Erislandy Lara bested his countryman Yudel Jhonson Cedeno repeatedly and was sent to the world championships.
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Erislandy Lara was considered a favorite to win the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
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In 2008, Erislandy Lara attempted a second defection, this time on a speed boat to Mexico.
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Erislandy Lara was successful and made his way to Hamburg, Germany, where he joined former Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yan Bartelemi, and Yuriorkis Gamboa in the Arena Box-Promotion stable.
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On 1 January 2009, Erislandy Lara made his ESPN debut and scored a first-round Technical knockout against Rodrigo Aguiar.
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Erislandy Lara's following fight came on 20 February 2009, against Keith Gross.
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Erislandy Lara dropped Gross with a left hand, but Gross beat the count on wobbly legs.
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On 2 May 2009, on the Pacquiao vs Hatton undercard, Erislandy Lara faced Chris Gray.
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Erislandy Lara finished the fight with good combinations, prompting the referee to stop the fight in round four.
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On 25 March 2011, at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Erislandy Lara fought Carlos Molina to a ten-round majority draw.
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Erislandy Lara started by frequently targeting Molina's body with the left uppercut when Molina would attempt to close the distance.
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Early on, Molina seemed to predict and nullify much of Erislandy Lara's attempted one-two combinations.
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Visibly fatigued, Molina developed a cut under his left eye near the beginning of the ninth round as Erislandy Lara landed a hard, clean, straight left hand and pushed the pace.
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Erislandy Lara fought former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams on 9 July 2011, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he lost a majority decision.
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Erislandy Lara was able to land hard, clean left hands throughout the fight while maintaining superb defense.
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Erislandy Lara landed 7 more jabs and 17 more power punches than Williams, despite the near two-fold activity by Williams.
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Consequently, the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board suspended all three judges, and Erislandy Lara received his first loss as a professional fighter in a highly controversial fashion.
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On 20 April 2012, Erislandy Lara made his comeback to the ring after nine months to fight Ronald Hearns for the WBC super welterweight semi-final eliminator spot at the Beau Rivage casino resort in Biloxi, Mississippi.
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On 10 November 2012, at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, Erislandy Lara faced Vanes Martirosyan, who was undefeated at the time and known for his amateur wins over Andre Berto, Austin Trout, and Timothy Bradley.
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On 8 June 2013, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California, Erislandy Lara received the first two knockdowns of his professional career en route to earning a TKO victory over Mexico's Alfredo Angulo along with the interim WBA super welterweight title.
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However, Erislandy Lara struggled with the aggression of Angulo at times and was put on the canvas in rounds 4 and 9 courtesy of Angulo's vaunted left hook.
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On 7 December 2013, Erislandy Lara fought Austin Trout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
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Erislandy Lara put on a dominant performance as he immediately nullified Trout's offense using deft footwork and clean punching.
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In outclassing Trout, Erislandy Lara scored a knockdown in round eleven via straight left hand.
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Trout was hurt for the remainder of the round as Erislandy Lara pressed the action.
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Erislandy Lara cruised to the unanimous decision and retained his WBA interim super welterweight title.
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Erislandy Lara fought Canelo Alvarez on 12 July 2014, at the MGM Grand in a non-title match.
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Alvarez rehydrated to 171 pounds while Erislandy Lara came into the ring at 166 pounds.
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Alvarez managed to land 88 power punches while Erislandy Lara landed 53 power punches all to the head.
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Erislandy Lara's clean punching along with his defense and movement were weighed against Alvarez's effective aggressiveness.
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Erislandy Lara came out in dominant fashion, utilizing a stick-and-move style and capturing the early rounds.
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On 12 December 2014, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Erislandy Lara showcased his ability to move in range to punch and then swiftly escape without taking damage against Ishe Smith.
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Erislandy Lara would move in a forward direction towards Smith and escape in a linear direction, oftentimes sidestepping, while landing the one-two combination.
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Erislandy Lara was frequently able to turn Smith into additional punches by stepping around Smith's lead foot, thus enabling Erislandy Lara to set traps.
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On 12 June 2015, Erislandy Lara defended his WBA super welterweight title and won the vacant IBO title against Delvin Rodriguez at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago.
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Erislandy Lara was able to score a knockdown in round six via straight left hand.
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On 25 November 2015, Erislandy Lara defended his WBA and IBO super welterweight titles against Jan Zaveck in Hialeah, Florida.
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Erislandy Lara continued to stay in the pocket and countered Zaveck, halting his aggression.
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Erislandy Lara landed a straight left hand at the start of round three followed by a series of combinations punctuating with an uppercut at which point Zaveck put his hand out, turned away, and refused to continue.
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On fight night, Erislandy Lara unofficially weighed 160.5 pounds while Martirosyan came in at 170 pounds.
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Early reports on 30 November 2016, stated that there were talks of Erislandy Lara to defend his WBA and IBO titles against former WBA super welterweight champion Yuri Foreman.
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Erislandy Lara won the fight after delivering a knockout in the fourth round via left uppercut.
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In front of 7,643, Erislandy Lara knocked down Gausha en route to a 12-round unanimous decision to retain his world titles.
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Erislandy Lara connected with a left hook followed by a left straight, which floored Gausha in the fourth round.
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Erislandy Lara landed 121 of 528 punches, while Gausha connected with 77 of 329, which appeared to do little damage.
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Erislandy Lara weighed 153.5 pounds and Hurd came in slightly lighter at 153 pounds.
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Hurd won a 12-round split decision over Erislandy Lara in what was a potential fight of a year candidate to become a unified light middleweight champion.
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Erislandy Lara was hurt from the knockdown, but was able to get up and still throw some nice shots.
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Erislandy Lara started the fight the better boxer of the two, due to Hurd not putting as much pressure on Erislandy Lara until the later rounds.
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In October 2018, at the WBC annual convention in Kyiv, it was announced that Jermell Charlo would be allowed to make another voluntary defence and Erislandy Lara was ordered to fight Julian Williams in a final eliminator.
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On 2 March 2019, Erislandy Lara faced Brian Castano for the WBA world super welterweight title and fought to a split-decision draw.
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Erislandy Lara labeled the fight personal because of his history with the Alvarez family.
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Erislandy Lara dominated the fight and stopped Alvarez within two rounds, to earn yet another title belt in his career.
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Vendetti showed a lot of courage and fight, but Erislandy Lara was simply too good for him, outboxing him in almost every round of the fight.
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All three judges saw it that way, as Erislandy Lara won the fight via unanimous decision in his second successful title defence.
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On March 30,2024 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Erislandy Lara defeated Michael Zerafa via second-round TKO and made the second successful defense of his WBA middleweight title.
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Erislandy Lara was scheduled to make the third defense of his WBA middleweight title against Danny Garcia at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on September 14,2024.