By Keith Idec

Every time Erislandy Lara watched his fight with Brian Castano, he walked away wondering how it resulted in a split draw.

The former 154-pound champion believes he beat Castano convincingly. Two judges disagreed with Lara’s take on that 12-round, 154-pound championship match March 2 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Kevin Morgan scored seven rounds for Castano and five for Lara (115-113). Julie Lederman scored six rounds apiece for Castano and Lara (114-114).

John McKaie credited Lara with winning seven rounds, two more than Castano (115-113).

“Obviously, it was another entertaining fight,” Lara told krikya360.com through a translator. “I thought I won clearly. I’ve watched that fight a few times. Castano never landed any meaningful shots. All his shots were on the arms or being blocked or missed. I feel I dominated the rounds I won, and the close rounds they gave to Castano weren’t Castano rounds. I don’t see how anyone could give Castano six or seven rounds, if you watched that fight. I’m a little disappointed.”

According to Showtime’s unofficial punch statistics, Castano connected on 65 more overall punches (195-of-863 to 130-of-825) and more power punches (181-of-668 to 103-of-301). Lara landed more jabs, according to those numbers (27-of-524 to 14-of-195).

Regardless, that result left Lara with a third draw on his record (25-3-3, 14 KOs). He also has lost 12-round split decisions to Canelo Alvarez and Jarrett Hurd, as well as a 12-round majority decision to Paul Williams.

“That’s six majority or split decisions or draws in my shortcomings, so obviously something’s not being seen,” Lara said. “I’m not sure what it is. I’m held to such a high standard, so when I don’t completely dominate somebody, they give the round to the other person. You don’t have to win in boxing by a hundred points. You’ve gotta win by one point, so winning is winning. And every fight that I’ve been in I feel I’ve won more rounds than the other guy.”

The 36-year-old Lara is heavily favored to defeat Mexico’s Ramon Alvarez (28-7-3, 16 KOs, 1 NC), Canelo’s older brother, in their 12-round fight for the vacant WBA world super welterweight title Saturday night at The Armory in Minneapolis (FOX; 8 p.m. EDT/5 p.m. PDT). The Cuban-born southpaw would’ve preferred an immediate rematch with Argentina’s Castano (15-0-1, 11 KOs), who relinquished one of the WBA’s 154-pound championships when he withdrew from a mandatory match with France’s Michel Soro over the summer due to a purse dispute.

“That’s the fight I wanted,” Lara said. “If the fight’s there, I’m willing to do it because I’m willing to fight anybody. If it’s not, it’s not. I don’t think that was a controversial fight. My main focus is on Ramon Alvarez. If Castano wants a rematch, I’m willing to fight him at any time.” 

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.