- Erislandi Lara
Erislandi Lara Santoya sometimes written "Erislandy" (born
April 11 ,1983 ) is aCuba n boxer. The southpaw is the 2005 amateur world champion at welterweight.Career
In 2003 and 2004 he lost four times against double world champ
Lorenzo Aragon .In 2005 after Aragon stepped down Lara bested his countryman Yudel Jhonson Cedeno repeatedly and was sent to the world championships. There he avenged an earlier loss to Russian
Andrey Balanov , beat American Melson Boyd, upset top favourite and Olympic championBakhtiyar Artayev (31-22) and won Gold againstMagomed Nurutdinov (BLR).The only fighter who has beaten him twice in the last years is another Kazakh:
Bakhyt Sarsekbayev . In their only meeting he beat American world champDemetrius Andrade 9:4.Failed Defection and Pro career
He defected in 2007 together with superstar
Guillermo Rigondeaux . Some weeks later he was caught in Brazil and he was returned to Cuba.He then successfully defected in 2008 on a speed boat and is now in Hamburg, Germany where he will join former Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yan Barthelemy and Yuriorkis Gamboa in the Arena Box-Promotion stable. Lara made news headlines last year when he and two-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux disappeared before the PanAm games but were later returned to Cuba by Brazilian authorities. Lara, banned from boxing in Cuba, then escaped the country again on a speedboat to Mexico from where he received entry to Germany. He made his pro debut on Arena's July 4 card in Istanbul. Rigondeaux remains in Cuba, where he has not boxed since.
External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/pedrinet/lara.html Amateur record]
*boxrec|id=457231References
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