Canelo Alvarez – Amir Khan is a JOKE!

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By Andrew “Drew The Picture” Hames

To say that the announcement of Canelo Alvarez’s upcoming HBO PPV showdown with former WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF junior welterweight champion Amir Khan came as a non-electrifying shock to the boxing world would be as vague and misleading as implying that a man on the run from the law was devoting his time to staying in peak physical condition. The fact is that in our desperation for boxing’s next mega-bout , the fight probably couldn’t have been regarded with any more current discuss and disgust in America if they announced in addition that it would be staged at the Trump Plaza, on Election Day, in honor of Donald’s official coronation. It’s because of this that I felt some alternative light ought to be shed on the perception this match-up, if for no better reason than to add some level of promotion for a PPV that would in fact be in accordance with a legitimate attempt to promote a PPV…

Amid all the controversy surrounding the event, the voice of boxing business and timing has perhaps been drowned out. After all, this bout marks the first time any fighter has secured a PPV headline on a Cinco De Mayo card in a considerable amount of time now, especially since the PPV date has generally been reserved for boxing’s recently retired P4P Champion and cash cow Floyd Mayweather. In fact, just a year ago, it was believed that Mayweather-Pacquiao was forced into fruition by Canelo and his promoter Golden Boy Promotions’ open attempts to compete with Floyd for the Mexican holiday promotion. Seeing as though they’ve finally secured it, upon a time in which Canelo and his potential dance partner in boxing’s next highly anticipated mega-bout, Gennady Golovkin, have agreed to face at least one different opponent before negotiating to face each other, it probably should only expect that GBP would look to find Canelo an opponent with a substantial fan base at or around his weight class. In that particular regard, there may be no available active fighter between welterweight and the Middleweight division Canelo owns a lineal title in at the moment than Amir Khan, who himself has spent the last few years on social media and boxing interviews alike pleading for fights with Floyd and Manny Pacquiao.

Considering the low probability that Khan will land either opponent any time soon, Canelo may have been the next best thing in terms of star power, especially with no prominent Mexican fighters at junior middleweight or middleweight to commemorate Cinco De Mayo with. I must give credit to Khan considerably here as well. As critical as the boxing world and myself have been of him in the past, the announcement of this fight alone proves he is indeed willing to fight anybody, provided only that the price is right. In fact this announcement took the boxing world by such a storm that it silenced all previous talk of Khan avoiding a mega-fight at Wembley Arena with the IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. Were Khan to pull off the improbable upset, his options from that point would be limitless, perhaps even becoming #50 for his long-desired fight with a returning Floyd, who told Khan in a recent ringside shouting match at the Danny Garcia-Robert Guerrero fight to “get some wins”. Perhaps that was the motivational speech Khan needed to secure the biggest challenge and fighter obvious career…. And from a promotional standpoint for Canelo, assuming he goes on be as victorious as public feedback projects, why not secure a lucrative fight to christen your Cinco De Mayo card before preparing for the biggest challenge of your own career in GGG? Perhaps GGG’S camp should have looked to capitalize on his previous PPV headline against David Lemeiux at this time as well, instead of settling for a solid but undeserving mandatory challenger from Super Middleweight Dominic Wade. Somehow, there wasn’t a lot of overt reaction or disappointment when that fight was announced….

Surely, I wouldn’t expect today’s boxing fan to accept a business-related reason for a perceived mismatch alone. Fans are typically less than understanding when they don’t get the fights exactly when they want them. For those reasons, I thought today’s fan may kindly need to be reminded of Canelo’s recent resume of opposition, a resume that perhaps no current fighter in the sport could match in terms of his last 6 fights. Canelo’s list begins with a unification fight with them unbeaten WBA Junior Middleweight champion Austin Trout, his lone loss to them unbeaten P4P Champion Mayweather, a KO of former junior middleweight champion Alfredo Angulo, a decision victory (albeit controversial) over the highly regarded Cuban Erislandy Lara, a Knockout Of The Year against former world champion James Kirkland, and a high-profile fight with the then reigning WBC lineal Middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. Somehow, I think Canelo has earned a pass for taking a lesser fight. And Amir Khan isn’t a bad name to use it for… In fact, that will essentially total Canelo’s eighth consecutive named opponent. And it’s worth mentioning that he proved himself to be willing to take risks simply by choosing Lara as a PPV opponent to begin with, a fight that surely offered far more risk than reward, and netted significantly under 500,000 buys in his debut year as a PPV attraction. Keep in mind also that GGG’S camp has been dismissive of Lara for two years now for the same low-reward reasons, even after Lara repeatedly offered to move up to 160 for the fight, whereas the primary problem in making GGG-Canelo has been GGG’S refusal to oblige Canelo’s demand that the fight take place at his preferred weight of 155….

Lastly, fighters jumping weight classes for major title opportunities has never been uncommon in the sport to begin with. Marlon Starling jumped up from welterweight to Middleweight to face then Middleweight champion Michael Nunn. Ray Leonard jumped from welterweight to Middleweight fresh off retirement for his famous fight with Marvin Hagler. Ray Robinson moved up from welterweight to Middleweight to challenge Jake Lamotta. And Henry Armstrong’s simultaneous title reigns in three weight classes speaks for itself….

In a sport where we glorify multi-division champions as much as we do, we seem to often forget that there would be no such thing if no smaller fighter was valiant enough to move up to challenge a bigger opponent, and every bigger opponent only fought guys his own size. I share the common sentiment that a Canelo KO is the very probable outcome. I also believe that we’d be hard pressed to name a fighter who didn’t have at least one fight on his resume where he was an overwhelming favorite at the very announcement of the match. And many of those decisive underdogs didn’t have anywhere Amir Khan’s name or accomplishments either. This doesn’t mean we should advocate for more bouts like this. It simply means we should probably accept the sport for what it is, and charge match-ups like this to the game. In the words of the police who look to diffuse large crowds from assembling around crime scenes, “Keep it moving people. There’s nothing to see here”, aside from a fight that should stylistically be entertaining, at least while it lasts. Hopefully, our dismissal of Khan will result in motivating his best career performance, and it offers us a fairly competitive and thrilling fight on May 7. Hopefully that is.

Signing off until next time….

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