Erislandy Lara didn’t exactly wow the crowd between knockdowns he scored in the first and 12th rounds Saturday night at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio.

The elusive Cuban southpaw slipped most of Johan Gonzalez’s punches, was economical with his own shots and appeared content to coast to a wide win on the scorecards. Fans booed during their mundane middleweight title bout, but an unfazed Lara safely went about his business on the Isaac Cruz-Lamont Roach pay-per-view undercard.

Judges Robert Hoyle (118-108), Jesse Reyes (120-106) and Ignacio Robles (119-107) scored the "action" for Lara by huge margins.

Lara, 42, retained his WBA middleweight title. The oldest active champion in boxing is 5-0 since he moved up from junior middleweight in 2021.

Venezuela’s Gonzalez, 34, replaced Lara’s original opponent, IBF/WBO champ Janibek Alimkhanuly (17-2, 12 KOs), on less than a week’s notice after he tested positive for Meldonium, a banned substance. Gonzalez dropped to 2-3 in his past five fights.

Lara (32-3-3, 19 KOs) landed three left hands that knocked Gonzalez (36-5, 34 KOs) to the canvas late in the 12th round. He got up before referee Mark Nelson counted to 10 and the final bell sounded soon thereafter.

The second knockdown Lara recorded occurred after the ninth, 10th and 11 rounds concluded without any noteworthy action.

Lara complained to Nelson about a clash of heads with under 40 seconds remaining in the eighth round. That was about the only remarkable moment of that round.

Lara’s elusiveness limited Gonzalez’s output in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds.

Lara landed a straight left that knocked Gonzalez backward with about 40 seconds to go in the fifth, but he didn’t connect with many impactful punches in those 12 minutes of action.

Lara patiently moved around the ring and threw occasional punches at Gonzalez in the third. Gonzalez backed Lara into the ropes and threw two hard rights at his body with just under 40 seconds to go.

Lara’s left hand knocked an off-balance Gonzalez to the canvas with a little less than a minute to go in the first. Gonzalez answered Nelson’s count pretty quickly after the sixth knockdown of his career and didn’t seem badly hurt.