The oldest world champion in boxing, Erislandy Lara, defended his WBA middleweight title against Danny Garcia in a boring fight on Saturday evening.

Garcia returned to the ring for the first time since his majority decision victory over Jose Benavidez Jr. in July 2022.

1

The former two-weight world champion has been chronically inactive, taking part in only two fights in the last four years, and it showed.

Garcia looked very rusty in the ring and was put under pressure several times by Lara, who fought a disciplined fight behind his jab.

In the fourth round, Garcia landed only one punch and managed a total shutout in which Lara barely broke a sweat.

A cacophonous roar of boos rang out through the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as the low-intensity fight failed to impress the sold-out crowd.

Garcia never looked confident in his work and seemed hesitant to let go of his hands, while Lara dodged his opponent’s half-hearted attacks and bombarded him with straight punches.

It wasn’t that Lara was good-looking. In fact, his age was noticeable at times.

Rather, this fight was characterized by Garcia’s lack of commitment.

In the ninth round, Garcia went down to his knees after taking a left straight at the end of the round that didn’t seem to offer much, and was pulled out by his corner as he walked back to his chair.

A bizarre ending to a truly terrible fight, perfectly summed up by Chris Mannix in his commentary: “The middleweight division is terrible right now, but this fight was somehow even worse.”

Immediately afterward, fans flocked to social media to share their thoughts on the difficult experience.

One fan wrote: “By far the worst fight of the year.”

Another went even further: “This is the worst fight I have ever seen.”

A third supporter tweeted: “That was a nice sparring match. Almost fell asleep.”

And someone else commented: “Lara lands a few punches and Garcia gives up, pathetic fight.”

Immediately afterwards, Garcia did not rule out retirement, but did not decide to hang up his gloves immediately.

Lara now seemed satisfied with his performance and will now face much more difficult tests.

At 41 years old, Lara is the oldest active world champion in boxing and two years older than the unified light heavyweight world champion Artur Beterbiev, who is in second place.

After a disappointing side-by-side, all eyes are now on the main event between Canelo Alvarez and Edgar Berlanga.

WhatsApp channel for boxing