By Mark Eisner: WBA ‘regular’ junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (27-3, 15 KOs) cruised to a 12 round unanimous decision victory over the motivated but limited #11 WBA Greg Vendetti (22-4-1, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Lara, 37, treated the fight like a sparring session, taking his time, doing enough to win the majority of the rounds with his jabs, straight lefts, and hooks. The judges scored it for the talented Cuban Lara by the scores 116-112, 117-111, and 117-111. Boxing News 24 had it 118-110.
Greg Vendetti, 30, was trying hard in putting pressure on Lara, but he was only able to do well in the rounds where Erislandy let him. In the first six rounds, Lara looked like he was in first gear, and taking his time in not expending energy. But once the fight went into the championship rounds, Lara stepped it up and was a completely different fighter.
Lara coasted early on
You can’t blame Lara for fighting at a slower pace earlier in the fight because it would have meant that he would have gotten hit a lot more than he did. But with the way Lara fought,
