I'm too loud. I can't believe it. I'm never gonna get a chance to play in front of anybody. That was so stupid, Grandpa hit him with the car. This is uh, this is heavy duty, Doc, this is great. Uh, does it run on regular unleaded gasoline?

Another boxer who has repeatedly come up short by the finest margins, apart from Lara and Jack, is hard-luck junior bantamweight Alejandro Santiago Barrios. If a round or two had gone his way in a split-decision loss early in his career and with his five draws (four of which were vs. quality opposition) – most recently against IBF beltholder Jerwin Ancajas – the 23-year-old Tijuana native would be a top-rated 115-pound world titleholder with a 23-1 record instead of a fringe contender with a 17-2-5 record. His career and livelihood would be completely different (for the better)!

Current IBF lightweight titleholder Richard Commey would have held that belt 2½ years earlier had one round on Craig Smith’s 114-113 scorecard for Robert Easter Jr. gone his way in that hotly contested fight. And the Ghanaian standout would be unbeaten had Steve Weisfeld scored one or two rounds his way in his hard stand against Denis Shafikov.

Erislandy Lara in another close fight that didn’t go his way this weekend. Yes, but it was legitimately close. I picked him to win a close one, but I was OK with the split draw against Brian Castano. Neither junior middleweight was able to take control of the fight and neither deserved to win the bout by more than a round, their styles basically meshed in a way that they cancelled each other’s strengths.

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When you think how little there was in those fights he lost, he could easily be considered a P4P level guy with just a bit more luck. SD losses to Canelo, Jarret Hurd, robbed against Paul Williams, he’s been very unlucky. He was lucky against Carlos Molina. But yeah, he was definitely unlucky vs. Canelo (mostly due to Levi Martinez being one of the judges). The Hurd fight was just a nip and tuck battle that was decided by a final-round knockdown. He was on the s__t-end of that stick, but I see that as Hurd making his own luck rather than Lara being “unlucky.”

Had he won those fights, I think his stature in boxing would be higher, he would have made more money, had a few more big fights, and he’d be a unified 154-pound beltholder right now, but I’m not sure he’d be considered pound-for-pound. I picked him to beat Williams because P-Will was coming off a devastating KO loss to Sergio Martinez. He didn’t beat Williams when the towering volume-puncher was considered a top talent or the “Boogeyman’ of three divisions. And Canelo was just one bout removed from being

Lara eventually stopped Angulo but he had his hands full with the pressure fighter.

undressed by Floyd Mayweather. Canelo wasn’t on any pound-for-pound lists in 2014. I’m not trying to dismiss Lara. He’s very good, and I think his valor is underrated, but he’s not the elite boxer that he’s often hyped up to be. He’s tough and crafty southpaw who brought the Cuban amateur style directly to the pro ranks, and he’s done well with it, but he never developed into a complete professional. He’s beatable, and one doesn’t have to be a “world-beater” to compete with him. Cagey Carlos Molina gave him fits, a faded Alfredo Angulo gave him hell, and he struggled in two fight against Vanes Martirosyan. There’s no shame in those struggles, the fights with Angulo and Hurd were sensational. Lara remains a top-five junior middleweight at age 35 and he should be commended for that.

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