Erislandy Lara continues to throw verbal jabs to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez ahead of their upcoming showdown on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
In an interview with BoxingScene, Lara said that Canelo is all hype and that the former light middleweight champion earned a name for himself by just fighting smaller and older opponents.
Lara added that he will not let Canelo do what he did in his previous fights, while also confidently saying that he is superior to Alvarez based on their boxing skills.
"Canelo is arrogant and an inflated boxer," Lara said. "I really don't like him for his character, in addition to him being inflated. But it's not something that's personal [for me]. He doesn't realize what kind of trouble that he's going to have when he faces me. I am superior to Canelo Alvarez in every area."
The 31-year-old Lara, who is coming off a unanimous decision win against Austin Trout in December last year, said that he will go all out to score a win, pointing out that a convincing win will be big for his career because it will prove that he is way better than his heavily-favored opponent.
"Beating Canelo means everything to me," Lara said. "For me to demonstrate to the world that I'm not just better than him, but that I'm 150 percent better than him, means everything to me. Like I said before, I'm going to take him to Cuban school."
Lara and Alvarez have been trading barbs against each other over the past several weeks. Canelo is also aching to get into the ring and make Lara pay for his disrespectful acts before.
Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya is also expecting an emotion-filled showdown on Saturday, saying that Lara's continuous trash talking made the fight a "personal" showdown between two fighters who are fighting for bragging rights.
"It's going to be a great fight, I don't want to predict anything. Lara has been doing a lot of trash talking that has been fueling Canelo," De La Hoya said. "I see him at an entirely different level and it's exactly where he should be. He's at a level of determination where he really wants to get this guy. It's personal."
