By: Sean Crose
The 24-2-1 featherweight Mauricio Lara battled the 33-5-1 Jose Sanmartin Saturday evening in the scheduled 10 round main event of a Matchroom card broadcast live from Mexico City via DAZN. Both men appeared to be somewhat cautious in the first, though Lara seemed to snap alive at the end of the round. Each fighter maintained a high guard in the second while the wildly pro-Lara crowd cheered their man on. There was a patient aggressiveness to Lara which made him appear similar to a young Gennady Golovkin. A Sanmartin low blow caused the fight to be stopped for a few second’s near round’s end.
Sanmartin had a bad habit of staying straight in front of his man. It was a habit that cost him the fight in round three. Lara tagged him earlier on, causing Sanmartin to stumble, then fall back and hit the canvas near the ropes. Sanmartin beat the count, then gamely resumed fighting. Lara, however, smelled blood and went in for the kill, firing shot after shot with bad intentions. Several moments later, Sanmartin was down again. By this time, however, the referee had seen enough and had decided to stop the fight. Suffice to say, Lara’s hometown Mexico City audience was delighted with the result.
The Eddie Hearn promoted Lara is now looking for a title clash. Indeed, Lara had been set to face Leigh Wood for Wood’s WBA world featherweight title, but a Wood injury caused the match to fall through. In fact, after the fight the hard hitting Lara had some harsh words regarding Wood. “He said that he was hurt,” Lara said of the dangerous Brit, “but…it looks like it’s not true.”
