Erislandy Lara

Erislandy Lara Santoya (born 11 April 1983) is a Cuban-American professional boxer who is the current WBA middleweight champion, having held the title since 2021.

He has held multiple world championships in two weight classes.

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

He was captain of the Cuban national amateur team, winning a gold medal in the welterweight division at the 2005 World Championships as well as three consecutive Cuban national championships from 2005 to 2007.

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, Lara beat American world champion Demetrius Andrade 9–4.

Boxing World Cup results

2005

However, in 2007, Lara and Guillermo Rigondeaux defected from Cuba during the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Some weeks later, he was caught by Brazilian authorities and returned to Cuba where he was banned from practicing boxing indefinitely.

Lara was considered a favorite to win the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

In 2008, Lara attempted a second defection, this time on a speed boat to Mexico.

Lara was successful and made his way to Hamburg, Germany, where he joined former Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yan Bartelemí, and Yuriorkis Gamboa in the Arena Box-Promotion stable.

On 1 January 2009, Lara made his ESPN debut and scored a first-round Technical knockout (TKO) against Rodrigo Aguiar.

Lara's following fight came on 20 February 2009, against Keith Gross.

Lara dropped Gross with a left hand, but Gross beat the count on Wobbly legs.

Lara continued unleashing combinations to the head and body.

A left uppercut finished the fight within round one.

On 2 May 2009, on the Pacquiao vs. Hatton undercard, Lara faced Chris Gray.

Lara won the fight via unanimous decision.

On 22 May 2009, Lara faced aging Edwin Vazquez.

Lara finished the fight with good combinations, prompting the referee to stop the fight in round four.

On that same night, fellow Cuban boxer Guillermo Rigondeaux made his pro debut, which he also won via referee stoppage in the third round.

After beating Edwin Vazquez, Lara went on to win nine straight fights punctuated by four consecutive first-round knockout victories.

On 25 March 2011, at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, Lara fought Carlos Molina to a ten-round majority draw.

Lara started by frequently targeting Molina's body with the left uppercut when Molina would attempt to close the distance.

Early on, Molina seemed to predict and nullify much of Lara's attempted one-two combinations.

Although Lara had trouble connecting with his signature straight left hand initially, he found the distance by the middle rounds and began to mix in short hooks to the head while blocking most of Molina's constant body work.

Molina, on the other hand, was rarely able to find Lara's head throughout the entire fight.

Relying on looping punches, Molina stayed close and took advantage of the clinches to land to the body.

Visibly fatigued, Molina developed a cut under his left eye near the beginning of the ninth round as Lara landed a hard, clean, straight left hand and pushed the pace.

Molina's higher output and pressure were favored by one judge while Lara's cleaner, sharper output and defense went largely unnoticed by ringside commentators.

The final scorecards read: 95–95, 95–95, and 97–93 in favor of Molina.

Lara fought former WBO welterweight champion Paul Williams on 9 July 2011, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, 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.

Previously he held various versions (both Regular and Super) of the WBA light middleweight title between 2014 and 2021, and the IBO light middleweight title twice between 2015 and 2021.

As of May 2022, Lara is ranked as the world's fifth-best active middleweight by BoxRec.

Lara is regarded by some as one of the most technically skilled fighters in boxing today.