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By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) is using Erislandy Lara’s fight against Alfredo Angulo from last year as a blueprint to follow to learn how to beat the tough Cuban fighter Lara on July 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Canelo doesn’t care that Lara was teeing off on Angulo the entire fight and ultimately stopped him in the 10th round when Angulo turned his back on Lara after getting tagged with a brutal straight left to the head; Canelo still feels that the best way to beat Lara is to follow Angulo’s game plan by attacking him.

It’s probably not going to work out too well for the 23-year-old Canelo to be aping Angulo’s fighting approach, because what worked for Angulo probably won’t work well for Canelo. It’s a different situation. Lara was more willing to trade with the slow as molasses Angulo last year because he knew he had a guy in front of him who wasn’t all that dangerous. But against someone Canelo, Lara is going to be on the move, and will be follow what Floyd Mayweather Jr’s employed in beating Canelo by hitting him with pot shots and then stepping out of the way. What we saw in that fight was that Canelo needed to set his feet in order to throw with power, and Mayweather didn’t let Canelo do this, it resulted in Canelo being far less effective.

“I’ve always said that styles make fights and these are two different styles,” Canelo said. “But I will use as a reference that Angulo, with his style of coming forward, throwing punches but also receiving punches, was able to halt him and drop him,” Canelo said. “Now imagine my style, which is going to be aggressive, which is aggressive, but smarter and more intelligent. Boxing and moving. Not getting hit. That’s going to be a good reference and that’s what we’re working on.”

Instead of following the Angulo-Lara fight in how to beat Lara, Canelo needs to follow the Canelo-Mayweather fight and focus on trying to deal with the hand speed and movement that Lara will be using in their fight.