Erislandy Lara didn’t throw many punches but landed more than enough.
Lara, the 37-year-old former junior middleweight champ, had his way with overmatched Greg Vendetti en route to a unanimous-decision victory Saturday at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Lara (27-3-3, 15 KOs) was economical with his punches but landed plenty eye-catching blows, including a number of hard straight left hands and uppercuts.
And while the game Vendetti (22-4-1, 12 KOs) was able to bull his way inside fairly consistently, he did little damage, as Lara held, spun out of harm’s way or generally got the better of inside exchanges.
Vendetti was able to land some shots to the body, which made a few rounds competitive, but he simply could do enough to make the fight truly competitive.
The scores arguably were closer than they should’ve been: 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111. Boxing Junkie scored it 118-110 for Lara.
With the victory, Lara maintained his position as a legitimate contender to any of the 154-pound titleholders. He’d like to face the winner of the Sept. 26 Jermell Charlo-Jeison Rosario title-unification fight and also has his eye on a rematch with Canelo Alvarez.
A young Alvarez defeated Lara by a split decision in 2014.