Beware The Fury of a Patient Man: Canelo Alvarez & the WBC CUT the CRAP – Part I

By Roy “Sharpshooter” Bennett

(Publisher Note: As of this article, Canelo “Catchweight” Alvarez has VACATED his WBC Middleweight Title. Real SHOCKER… Not! “Sharpshooter” called it in this column that was written before “Catchweight” gave up his useless trinket!)

You can try to shake me down but it won’t work. I know exactly what I want. And for my money Saul “Canelo” Alvarez Vs Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is the biggest fight that can be made in boxing right now. It’s the perfect dish. All the ingredients are there. Like a celebrity chef’s Michelin star restaurant special – left overnight to soak in a secret marinade – this thing doesn’t need any more flavor. Ask for the salt and pepper when the dish arrives at your table and the chef will personally throw you out onto the street. In other words, this fight has everything it needs to wet the appetite. Nothing extra is required.

But despite this fact I doubt it gets done until the second half of 2017. What is there to be gained by dragging out the timeline for another year until the first bell? Absolutely nothing. And in waiting you run the risk of a fighter going off the boil, getting injured or the fans losing interest. Face it people. We don’t need another MayPac type delay here. Canelo and “GGG” are the hottest tickets in town! Put them together in the same ring and we’ve got a sure fire PPV blockbuster on our hands.

But let’s just say the powers that be give us what we want and the match up gets consummated later this year. Who wins? No. I’m serious. This fight has caught the imagination and fans seem to be split on the issue but, at the time of writing, the Las Vegas bookies have Golovkin pegged as a clear 4-1 favorite.

But those odds fail to reflect the unspoken narrative behind the marketing buzz and the promotional machine which will crank into action before the ink has even dried on the contracts. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating here. Canelo Alvarez must be protected at all costs. That’s right. I’m seeing it for what it is. If “GGG” doesn’t beat the living daylights out of this guy the fight just might get stolen from him on the scorecards.

If Canelo wins he becomes the face of boxing. The guy who carries the sport on his shoulders for the next five or six years. He’s only 25. And can he get any bigger in Mexico? Yes. If he beat Golovkin it would push his popularity into the South American stratosphere. And think about it. If he learns to speak English we could be looking at a major crossover star in the making. Manny Pacquiao was able to do it. Canelo, given the right circumstances, could also make the leap. Listen. More than a few entities beyond his promoter are set to feed off this guy for a long time which is why I maintain they don’t want this fight. Period.

Oscar De La Hoya’s and Canelo “Catchweight” Alvarez’s little game of middleweight musical chairs might be about to spectacularly backfire. And now that Canelo has gone on record as saying he’s willing to fight Golovkin at the full middleweight division limit of 160lbs, the proverbial elephant in the room can’t be ignored any longer. It’s time to put up or shut up.

On the flip side if Golovkin beats Canelo he achieves his goal of becoming undisputed middleweight champion – holder of all the belts – and punches his ticket to the big time. A win over Alvarez is a significant step in the right direction toward well paid mega fights against other big name opponents.

Hijacked…

In all fairness though the blame for the current catchweight middleweight situation cannot be placed squarely at Canelo’s feet. It started when Miguel Cotto moved up to challenge then champion Sergio Martinez. A weight limit of 159lbs was set for the bout which Cotto won by stoppage in ten rounds with Martinez forced to retire on his stool.

But Canelo continued the trend after beating Cotto by decision to win the title and reduced the catchweight even further to 155lbs. In doing so he excluded all legitimate middleweight contenders weighing on or around the 160lb division limit from challenging for the championship. In any other sport it would’ve been called for what it is. A hijacking. But the governing body – the WBC – chose to do nothing.
But here’s the thing. Canelo himself continues to enter the ring on fight night at “Jabba The Hutt weight”. Not surprisingly the WBC – a Mexico based organization – has continued to show its impotency by again turning a blind eye to its native son’s most recent blatant weight transgression against Amir Khan. Further evidence that Canelo possibly enjoys a triangle of protection involving his promoters, some of the officials assigned to his fights, and the governing body. Frankie Carbo and “Blinky” Palermo would’ve been proud.

Canelo has his supporters many of whom argue that there’s nothing wrong with fighting welterweights when you’re a middleweight. He holds wins against Cotto and Khan, and recently Manny Pacquiao was mentioned as a possible opponent by Top Rank Promotions CEO Bob Arum. Who are they going to call out next? Terrence Crawford?!!!

The Canelophiles say past middleweight champions – Sugar Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon, and Marvin Hagler – fought 147lbers. But wait one damn minute! I wasn’t born yesterday and I know my pugilistic history. Yes, Robinson, Monzon, and Hagler defended the lineal title against welterweights moving up on occasion. But what these revisionist casuals fail to recognize is they also regularly fought and beat legitimate natural middleweights who weighed 160lbs. With no catchweight stipulations! Canelo hasn’t fought any fully fledged 160lbers. Now slap yourself in the face on the way out the door.

The Bogeyman…

Gennady Golovkin remains the monster in the attic that no top ranked middleweight wants to go anywhere near. Canelo’s 155lb catchweight strategy was meant to exclude him from the championship conversation. But it did no such thing. To be considered for a shot at the lineal title Golovkin would have had to boil himself down to make the weight thus putting himself at a severe disadvantage. But Golovkin refused to play dice. He is determined to achieve his goal of unifying all the middleweight belts and will settle for nothing less before seeking greener pastures. Possibly in a higher weight class. Faced with “GGG’s” unyielding stance on the issue of unification, and his official position as the WBC’s No.1 mandatory contender, Canelo Alvarez now finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place.

Let’s Get It On…

Boxing fans have been drawn to the war of words between the fighters which has played out in full view. After both his fights against Cotto and Khan Canelo stood in ring center and said he would lace up the gloves and fight Golovkn right then and there. Mere bluster? Call it what you will. But such bold statements do not go unnoticed in boxing circles – especially in Mexico. Indeed, fans expect fighters to back up their bravado and now the boxing masses are clamoring for the fight to take place sooner rather than later. Canelo has put himself in a situation where he is expected to make good on his boasts by signing the contract. The options for wiggling out of any potential encounter with Golovkin are becoming less due to close public scrutiny and demand. For Canelo any attempt to back out now would be a huge loss of face and fans will be scathing in their criticism of him if he ducks “GGG” at this point.

And now all roads in his immediate future lead to the vicious punching Kazakh knockout specialist. Unless Canelo decides to run for the hills and vacates, or is stripped by the WBC for avoiding the mandatory defense. The governing body is like a hungry wolf when it comes to collecting sanctioning fees. They’ll eat their young if they don’t get paid. Canelo might be next on the menu.

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