There are weight limits in boxing for a reason, and only the truly special fighters can climb the divisions and dominate like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Roy Jones Jr., and James Toney to name a few.
Mexican boxing star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez tried to fool the public into thinking he was just as great by trying to go up against the right opponents only to lose against a champion at 175 pounds who was considered basic and tailor-made for Canelo.
When Canelo won a belt at 168 pounds he beat the weakest guy in Rocky Fielding, and when he fought Caleb Plant he was getting out boxed until he landed and knocked Plant out. He went to light heavyweight to beat up a weight drained, past his prime and worn out Sergey Kovalev for the WBO title.
He went back down to middleweight to defend his titles against Daniel Jacobs and got a decision in his favor, he wasn’t impressive at all and again got the decision because of his name.
When he went back to light heavyweight to take on Dmitry Bivol the undefeated WBA champion, it was pretty much a cherry pick gone wrong. He looked horrible in the fight, like a muscled up guy who gassed out and his power wasn’t there. Bivol boxed him up and all Canelo could do was hurt his opponents arms by punching them out of desperation to see if they would get cramped up.
A lot of Canelo fans were screaming that he was the greatest and a real throwback and would bring up Floyd Mayweather’s name to try to make their guy superior. The funny thing is Canelo copied Mayweather’s moves after his loss to the PPV king. Canelo was trying to use the roll and stance and pull counters of Floyd. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but only when that person admits to copying the other person, and Canelo and his fans still to this day refuse to admit that he copied Mayweather’s style.
It gets tiresome that they have to bring the name up of a retired fighter who schooled their fighter when they fought. They need to learn to take an “L” or else they will just keep hating and living in the past.
It reminds me of the Manny Pacquiao fanatics who couldn’t accept defeat even after Mayweather schooled him, they came up with excuses such as a shoulder injury, cramps, not being able to take a pain killer.
In terms of Canelo going up in weight, it was all smoke and mirrors. Watch most of his fights, he doesn’t really dominate when he fought Caleb Plant he was confused and having trouble with Plant until he got the KO and he has gotten gift decisions over guys who were master boxers like Erislandy Lara, Daniel Jacobs, Austin Trout, even when he fought Mayweather one of the judges scored it a Draw, Canelo was like a statue in their and barely threw punches yet he was able to get a Draw on one judges card.
Canelo’s former promoter Oscar De La Hoya revealed that if he was still promoting Canelo he would have never put him in with the killers of the light heavyweight division like Dmitry Bivol or even Artur Beterbiev.
De La Hoya basically admit to the world he cherry picked and protected Canelo when he promoted him.
I’m not knocking Canelo, but being honest about his career. He has skills and he belongs at 160 pounds and needs to fight the likes of Jermall Charlo next after he fights a shopworn “Triple G” Gennady Golovkin for a third time.
Canelo won’t even fight the undefeated super middleweight David Benavidez.
I think Canelo bit off more than he can chew at 175 pounds, he should avoid undefeated knockout artist Artur Beterbiev because that man right there is a beast with 100 percent KO ratio, and he would not hesitate to finish Canelo and knock him out.
He should also forget about a rematch with Dmitry Bivol because he would lose even worse than before. Focus on the 160 and 168 pound divisions and really test himself against the likes of Charlo and Benavidez, if he beats those guys fair and square with no gift decision he will revive his image and prove fans that he wasn’t a fighter carefully manufactured by Golden Boy Promotions.
