Canelo Alvarez next fight: Erislandy Lara cancels Ishe Smith bout on May 2, set for July 12 [VIDEO]

By all appearances, Canelo Alvarez has agreed to terms for a July 12 bout with Cuban slickster Erislandy Lara, who will get his chance to back up months of trash talking the highly popular Mexican pugilist. The founder of Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar De La Hoya, took to Twitter himself to announce the news.

Canelo out to prove no fear of Erislandy Lara

"Canelo vs Lara July 12 are you ready? @GoldenBoyBoxing stacked undercard," before asking fans who they'd like to appear on the undercard. Alvarez is fresh off a trashing of Alfredo Angulo, while Lara dominated Austin Trout in his last fight.

Plenty of fans and boxing observers consider Lara the best fighter in the 154-pound division, even if he is accompanied by far less fanfare than Alvarez. His style would seem to pose a legitimate threat to the red-headed one.

Alvarez was arguably shut out in 2013 by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the biggest fight of his career, completely unable to penetrate Mayweather's defense, while simultaneously getting pelted with power shots for 12 rounds. Prior to that, Alvarez earned a very difficult win over Trout that seemed to expose his struggles with elite defensive fighters.

Alvarez not mad Lara crashed press conference

Lara profiles as such, and has big wins of his own over Trout, Angulo, IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina, and former titlist Paul Williams.

On the other hand, Canelo is also well-known for devastating power shots-while Lara knocked Trout down, Canelo was the first to make him taste canvas. Lara's defense is very good, but not impossible to get past. Angulo was able to floor Lara twice in their June 2013 fight, which was stopped because of a severe gash and fractured orbital bone over Angulo's eye.

Alvarez proved in his last fight that he throws tighter, more powerful combos than Angulo with far greater speed, so Lara might need to increase his quickness in camp.

Keep up with Canelo's fights @SportsWN

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