By Elisinio Castillo

IBO/WBA 'regular' junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (21-2-2, 12 KO) was an interested observer of this past Saturday's middleweight title fight. The Cuban boxer says his performance in July 2014, against Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, was better than what Miguel Cotto was able to do against the Mexican star.

Lara will defend his world title on Wednesday at Hialeah Park and Casino in Florida. The fight against former champion Jan Zaveck could be a potential farewell weight to the junior middleweight division. Lara is seriously considering a move to 160-pounds.

A few days ago, Canelo won a very wide twelve round decision over Cotto. Lara lost a tight split decision when he fought Canelo last year. Some even felt Lara had done enough to get the win.

"Without taking anything away from Cotto because he is a great champion, but I think I gave Canelo a better fight. Cotto was hit a lot more than me and I don't think [he was able to hit] Canelo as much as I did. I really exposed his deficiencies," Lara told George Ebro.

"Fans who know this business are aware of what kind of work Cotto did and what I did against Canelo. Cotto did not show much of anything. If you notice, in the hours leading up to the fight they showcased all of these images of where Canelo looked great and they didn't even mention me. Golden Boy has no desire to do a second fight."