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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez Looks to Keep it “Business as Usual” Saturday Night Against Liam Smith!

3Gduepif0T1UGY8H4xMDoxOjBzMTt2bJBy Anthony “Stacks” Saldaña

It was a rainy Vegas night in May as I sat above the rafters with some colleagues on media row inside of the newly opened T-Mobile Arena. Canelo stood in the ring after a huge knockout win over Amir Khan, looked into the HBO cameras and stated, like we say in Mexico, ‘We don’t fuck around, I don’t fear anyone. Right now I will put on the gloves again and fight.” Alvarez was the lineal Middleweight champion, and fans knew what was next, the biggest fight of the year against the most feared man in boxing “GGG”. Instead, Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions never tried to negotiate the fight and vacated his WBC Championship belt to Golovkin. Now Alvarez, 47-1-1, 33 KO’s has made his way to Texas, a stronghold for the Mexican superstar where Saturday night he’ll take on Liam “Beefy” Smith, 23-0-1, 13 KO’s for the WBO Junior Middleweight title at AT&T Stadium.

Meanwhile “GGG” took care of business this past Saturday in an ugly win over Welterweight Champion Kell Brook who moved up in weight to face the boogeyman himself Golovkin. Brook was hospitalized after the fight with a broken eye socket and “GGG” waits for his next opponent. Between Canelo making his own weight classes and him and Golden Boy Promotions taking a page from Floyd “Money” Mayweather, JR. Saturday night is going to be “business as usual” for Alvarez who comes in at a -1200 favorite in Vegas. Despite the anger by true fans who want the best to fight the best, the boxing casuals will be persuaded into paying the $65.00 for the PPV and packing AT&T Stadium with at least 55,000 people.

Smith who is fighting for the first time in the United States will be to walking into a lion’s den, first off it’s Mexican Independence Day Weekend, second he’s a come forward fighter whose style is a perfect fit for the bigger Alvarez. Fans should look for this fight to go back and forth early and end the same as the Kirkland fight, with Smith completely knocked out. Smith also feels Canelo will be looking for the big KO as he recently stated “He’s ducked Golovkin massively.” There’s massive pressure from the fans because he wants to keep them on board and he will want to make a statement after what has happened. Although Smith comes from a fighting family, and is a World Champion I don’t see this fight going past the 7th.

Now, for business reasons this fight makes all the sense in the world for GBP and Canelo, another low risk high reward fight. A fight that keeps Canelo away from Golovkin for at least another year, if not longer, and a chance to provide the casuals a fight that should be full of action, and one that will more than likely end with the outcome they’re all looking for a knockout. The sport of boxing has seemed to succumb to the “business as usual” mentality. From Canelo Alvarez not fighting “GGG”, to Danny Garcia rumored to be fighting John Molina, JR.

instead of Keith Thurman, and Manny Pacquiao choosing to fight Jessie Vargas despite having a chance to take on Terence Crawford. The fact is fans can continue expect these types of fights as long as casuals continue to throw millions of dollars at these types of fights. With that being said real fans know boxing isn’t a popularity contest and the sometimes it’s the lesser known less paid fighters that bring the fans the best fights. Last Saturday night Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and Carlos Cuadras made a combined $650,000 and brought fans a Fight of the Year at the Forum. Due to the lack of popularity of Gonzalez and Cuadras, and for that type of payday they earned, the best had to fight the best.

In Canelo’s case he is just following suit to a path that was laid down by in the late 80’s by Mike Tyson, Don King and the major Cable companies that sold boxing to the casuals. Today with the politics of boxing continuing to play a major role in preventing major fights, and the relationships between networks and promoters standing in the way of getting a deals done, fans seem to put the blame solely on the fighter, but the executives are often the bigger culprits. As a true boxing fan, I know that any given Friday night at the Belasco Theater or at the Double Tree in Ontario I can witness a truly great fight by young hungry fighters, bouts that let me enjoy the “Sweet Science” and not have to worry about the big business of the sport.

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