Miguel Cotto is patiently weighing his options for his next fight, which will be against either Canelo Alvarez or Sergio Martinez. In the meantime, Cuban power puncher Erislandy Lara is making himself difficult for Alvarez to ignore.
Lara defeated Austin Trout last week at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, who had defeated Cotto convincingly and given Alvarez all he could handle. In that bout Lara knocked Trout down for the second time in his career; the only other man to do that was Canelo.
Now, Lara wants his opportunity on the grand stage to take Canelo one-on-one, and he's not above baiting him with taunts. Lara has taken to social media and called him "Canela," egging the Mexican superstar on.
"Canela?????????? I thought u were BORN READY?? Jajajaja tu eres un payaso y el mundo lo save #MEXICO #CUBA"
Two days later he launched another Twitter missile, "I tell @CaneloOfficial I beat him and his 7 brothers last night!#NOTbornready #Laravs7canelos."
The same day as that second bomb Lara re-tweeted boxing writer Steve Kim, who originally posted "Im hearing if Cotto chooses Martinez, it will be Canelo vs Carlos Molina on March 8th. Who buys that PPV? #boxing"
While Lara is not widely known in the United States, these types of antics tend to get fighters noticed. His style requires an aggressive fighter to be effective; his punches seem loaded with dynamite, but he often sits and waits for his frustrated opponents to charge forward and get knocked down by counter punches.
Lara is 19-1-2 with 12 knockouts, and his sole loss to Paul Williams is one that is frequently debated by boxing observers. Cotto surely offers the biggest payday, and likely the best fight, but Lara is somewhat of a cult figure to hardcore boxing fans, and will likely generate more interest than Molina.
Molina still considers himself plan B, though. "They [Golden Boy] say I'm the frontrunner [for Canelo] if they don't get the fight with Cotto, and it doesn't look like they're going to get it," Molina said.
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