Canelo Alvarez Has Earned A “Gimme” and Respect

By Travis Fleming

I remember being utterly disgusted at the WBC back in March of 2011. They saw a star in young, exciting Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and a result they decided to hand the powerful 19 year old red headed Mexican their vacant 154 lb belt on a platter. In a blatant display of favoritism, the WBC approved Ricky Hatton’s brother Matthew as Canelo’s opponent for their vacant 154 lb championship. This, despite Matthew Hatton never having fought above Welterweight and considered to be no more than a journeyman at 147 lbs. Not only was Canelo getting to fight a career Welterweight for a Junior Middleweight title, but he was fighting a guy who wasn’t even among the top 20 fighters in the division below while there were literally over 40 better and more deserving fighters from 147 lbs to 154 lbs. Needless to say, Canelo won the fight with ease, although he failed to knockout the much smaller Hatton.

Canelo turned pro in 2005 at just 15 years old and won 30 straight fights with 24 of those coming by knockout. Of those, his most notable wins were over the much smaller future LW champion Miguel Vazquez, twice at the begining of both of their careers and over American journeyman Lanardo Tyner.
Most fans world wide got their first glimpse of Canelo at age 19 on HBO against Miguel Cotto’s younger brother Jose Miguel Cotto. Jose Miguel was a good lightweight, but hardly a threat to a big welterweight such as Canelo. Canelo stopped him as expected but not before getting rocked along the ropes by the much smaller fighter. It was evident that young Canelo needed more seasoning before entering the championship level.

Next, Canelo would fight former welterweight king Carlos Baldomir. Baldomir was washed up but had a great chin and was expected to give Canelo some much needed rounds. Unfortunately that plan failed when Canelo put his lights out with a highlight reel KO in round 6 that got the boxing world talking about the youngster from Jalisco.

After Baldomir, Canelo’s handlers were on the hunt for an opponent who would do what Carlos was supposed to and that was to extend Canelo to 12 rounds and give him some much needed work while, at the same time, not being a big enough threat to derail the hype train with an upset KO. They found such a man in rugged former Junior Welterweight champion Lovemore Ndou. Ndou was almost 40 to Alvarez’ 20 years but he did his job surviving 12 rounds and losing every one of them to the bigger, fresher Canelo.

The WBC Junior Middleweight belt was vacated by Manny Pacquiao after he moved back to Welterweight to fight Shane Mosley and the WBC ordered that their top rated contender, which was Canelo, would fight for the vacant title. This was where I first took issue with Canelo’s opposition. 40 year olds Ndou and Baldomir hardly seemed like wins worthy of generating a title shot but I thought “oh well, at least he’ll have to beat a good fighter for the vacant title and then we’ll see if he’s legit”. That’s when the WBC offered up a sacrificial lamb in the form of Welterweight journeyman Matthew Hatton and it was clear as day that WBC president Jose Suliman had an obvious bias for Canelo.

After expectedly beating the much smaller Hatton and claiming “world champion” at just 20 years old, surely Canelo would have to face some of the best fighters at 154 lbs to remain a champ right? Unfortunately not. Next up were a pair of unsurprising KO’s against fringe contenders at the end of their careers in Ryan Rhodes and Alfonso Gomez. He followed those by KO’ing the always inconsistent and trigger shy Kermit Cintron, impressing no one in the process.
It was late 2011 and fans were getting sick of Canelo’s paper championship and demanding that he show and prove against a worthy contender. The 21 year old instead opted to go the easier route of facing a shot former great for name recognition and an easy payday so he signed to fight Sugar Shane Mosley who was winless in 3 years. It was a safe fight and everyone knew it. Canelo got a lot of heat for this fight from fans and media alike and deserved every bit of it. As expected, Canelo easily beat a shot Shane Mosley by wide decision.

It was now May 2012 and fans were rightfully screaming fraud and demanding Canelo face a legit challenger, I was right there among them making those same demands. It must have been near deafening for the proud 21 year old Canelo as he finally showed that he heard their pleas to face a formidable opponent and therefore signed to fight the biggest test of his career in the rangy fan favorite Paul “The Punisher” Williams who has been known to throw close to a hundred punches per round. With critics silenced and fans anticipating a war of epic proportions between Canelo and the proven 3 time champion Williams, the stage was set for a showdown in September on pay per view before the unthinkable happened. Just over a week after signing the most lucrative contract of his career against Canelo, one of boxings true good guys, Paul Williams, was launched 60 feet off of his motorcycle in accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Tragically, Williams’ career was over, he lost his biggest payday of his career and Canelo lost his chance to finally silence his critics.

The always exciting but not quite world class Josesito Lopez was brought in as a replacement for Williams. Canelo and Lopez faced off in September with Canelo battering the smaller Lopez around the ring, scoring several knockdowns before finishing Lopez in round 5. It was an impressive display but not against the caliber of opposition that fans now demanded Canelo face. I gave Canelo a pass for this one considering the circumstances with the Williams injury as long as someone legit was next.

Fans demanded a top tier operator next for Canelo and he would not only deliver this in his next fight, he would remain at this level for years to come.
In December of 2012, Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto was pitted against slick southpaw WBA Junior Middleweight champ Austin Trout. Cotto was expected to win and set up the biggest money fight in boxing that didn’t involve Mayweather or Pacquiao in Cotto vs Canelo. Unfortunately for Cotto, Trout didn’t read the script and arguably beat Cotto by a wider margin than Floyd Mayweather Jr in Cotto’s previous bout.

By the end of 2012, Canelo had to fight either Austin Trout, top contender Erislandy Lara or face ridicule from the fans and media alike. He signed to fight the high risk, low reward, southpaw Austin Trout in April of 2013. Canelo took the risk and it paid off winning a close decision, unifying the division and winning the respect of many fans who accused him of ducking a challenge.
At 22, Canelo was now a proven commodity and he would go on to face the best string of recent opponents out of any other fighter on earth. This would still not be enough to please many critics who to this day claim Canelo is a cherry picker. Many point to the choice of James Kirkland as his next opponent, others are still hung up on his career pre Trout where he was a kid who was still learning, some are mad that he let them down in a one sided loss to the greatest boxer of our time in Floyd Mayweather Jr and there are others who criticize his close fights against Trout and Lara as fights he should have lost.

Boxing fans are a fickle bunch and even though Canelo has done what has been asked of him some will never be satisfied. Canelo deserves our respect and I’m going to break down why. First off, I need you to forget about his career pre Trout, he was a kid learning on the job, he is now 24 and has fought excellent opposition back to back to back. Secondly forget about whether or not you felt he lost against Trout or Lara, the fights were both close and could have gone either way but proved Canelo is world class and after all, he doesn’t control the judges so don’t blame Canelo if you feel shafted, blame the judges or Golden Boy. Also let’s not fault a 23 year old for getting outsmarted by one of the most intelligent fighters to ever live.

Instead let’s take a look at what Canelo has done by 24 yrs of age with little amateur experience. He has done exactly what was asked of him that is to fight top level opposition. It is undeniable. He started with signing to fight Paul Williams, when that fell apart after disposing of replacement opponent Lopez, Canelo went on to face Trout. Trout was an undefeated champ, southpaw, high risk, low reward type; the definition of top level opposition. After Trout he went on to fight Mayweather in the highest grossing pay per view of all time, again obviously high level opposition. Losing a lopsided decision to Mayweather, he was entitled to a soft tune up along the lines of an Anthony Mundine or Jesus Soto Karass but instead opted to face and stop the murderous punching Alfredo Angulo. This is not top level opposition but it is B level against a dangerous puncher and impressive for a rebound tune up where he would have gotten away with a softer touch. Next Canelo would be accused of ducking Erislandy Lara who had just beaten Trout himself. Like Trout, Lara was southpaw, slick, high risk and low reward so obviously top tier opposition. It ended in a close fight that could have gone either way but Canelo was awarded the decision.

Earlier this year, Canelo would attempt to fight newly crowned Middleweight champion Miguel Cotto coming off the biggest win of his storied career vs Sergio Martinez. Cotto opted to wait out for the results of the Pacquiao vs Mayweather negotiations in hopes of securing a big money rematch with Mayweather in the high likelihood that negotiations between Mayweather and Pacquiao fell apart again. This caused Canelo to look elsewhere and led to him signing to fight James Kirkland who, very much like Angulo, is a B level opponent but a monstrous puncher and presents a risk in the form of game changing power. Kirkland is not a great opponent but he’s better than tune up level and considering Canelo tried getting Cotto, he isn’t that bad of a replacement.

I’m not mad about Kirkland as a tune up/replacement because the only other available option that hasn’t already fought Canelo is WBO Junior Middleweight champ Demetrius Andrade who is in the same vein as Trout and Lara in being slick, high risk, low reward. Canelo can’t be expected to take 4 stylistic nightmares in 5 fights (Trout, Lara, Mayweather then Andrade). Everyone gets a gimme sometimes, Chris Algieri anyone? Canelo has earned a tune up by fighting the best opposition in boxing since early 2013. Let’s give him a pass and the respect he deserves for running the gauntlet when most thought he would never do it.

After Kirkland, expect Canelo to once again chase a big money against Miguel Cotto. If he wins that fight or the fight somehow doesn’t get made, expect Canelo to test the waters at Middleweight to see if he has what it takes to challenge Gennady Golovkin by mid to late 2016. He’ll likely face someone like Marco Antonio Rubio first, then someone like Lee/ Ndam/ Lemieux before ultimately challenging the most feared man in boxing in GGG. Miguel Cotto and the rest of the Middleweight champs seem to want nothing to do with GGG, however, Canelo’s proven willingness to fight the best coupled with his competitive sparring sessions with GGG lead me to believe he will be one of the very few elite fighters from 154lbs to 160lbs with enough guts to get in the ring with GGG. By late 2016 a more seasoned Canelo could be GGG’s best opponent and has the potential to give GGG problems with his power, chin and decent technical ability. Until then let’s give Canelo his props, he held his end of the bargain by fighting the best opposition he could.