LAS VEGAS — Erislandy Lara and Danny Garcia both claimed ahead of their middleweight title fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that a win would earn them a place in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. That was always going to be a tough argument to make, with both men on the brink of induction at best — but it’s safe to say the nine rounds they fought Saturday did nothing to bolster their positions.

Maybe that’s unfair. Lara and Garcia are two very accomplished professionals who have had success in the highest echelons of the sport. But styles make fights, and the prospect of two veterans – one at his best when his opponents open up, and the other whose game is based on timing and countering – meeting in the ring, especially with a combined age of 77, always threatened to be a bit of a letdown, and that’s exactly what happened.

Still, it was a spectacularly uneventful fight. The T-Mobile crowd started booing in the first round and booed his opponent loudly and enthusiastically several times, including at the very end. Most of the blame can be laid at Lara’s feet, as he was up against a middleweight and middleweight boxer who was fighting for only his second time in four years and who could therefore be expected to go all out – but he seemed perfectly happy with his performance.

“I felt like I had boxed beautifully,” he said afterwards. “It was a work of art, like a Picasso.” The crowd booed that as much as they booed the match itself.

Where do you really begin to describe this fight? Round-by-round summaries are inadequate, as so little of note happened except for the final scene. There were differences and subtleties from one round to the next, but the basic summary is that Lara mostly secured a spot in the center of the ring while Garcia circled him. The two men tested each other and occasionally – very rarely – attempted to follow up with a power punch.

Long a difficult junior middleweight, Lara (31-3-3, 18 KOs) has reinvented himself as an entertaining middleweight since his legs can no longer slide as well in the ring. But without a willing dance partner, he has reverted to being kind of the old Lara: happy to do whatever he feels is necessary to avoid defeat, no matter how unsavory it may be to the audience.

Garcia (37-4, 21 KOs) had enough reflexes to dodge many of Lara’s punches, but not enough to actually retort. The punches he threw were often short and rarely, if ever, delivered with great force. There comes a time in many boxers’ lives when they step into the ring one day and discover, to their surprise and dismay, that they just “don’t have it.” And for Garcia — who competes 20 pounds over his most successful weight after stepping into the ring just once since 2020 — this might have been that night. His father and trainer, Angel, seemed concerned, asking him if he was OK as he walked to the corner. And when his son showed the first real signs of not only not being able to throw anything with malice, but also no longer being able to dodge or withstand what was coming back at him, he pulled the plug.

That moment came at the end of the ninth round, after Lara had started to counter his punches a bit and managed to hit Garcia a few times. The end came seemingly out of nowhere, Lara backed Garcia into the ropes and landed a punch that didn’t seem particularly significant but hit Garcia square in the face. Garcia slumped a little, seemed to consider his situation for a moment, and then went down on one knee. He wasn’t even counted out yet, but as soon as he trotted back to his corner, his father made it clear to him that enough was enough.

“I’m fine,” Garcia said afterward. “I didn’t think the break would affect me like that, but there are no excuses. I couldn’t find my rhythm. He had a strong jab and controlled the distance well. I tried to take a third division, but I came up short. I was at the top of the game for a long time. I’m going to take this with composure like a true champion.”

Kieran Mulvaney has written about boxing, broadcast, and podcasted for HBO, Showtime, ESPN, and Reuters, among others. He is also a regular contributor to National Geographic, has written several books about the Arctic and Antarctic, and is happiest when spending time with wild polar bears. His website is kieranmulvaney.com.