Give Canelo Alvarez a Break Already!

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By Rich “Lite It Up” Lopez

As we approach May 5th, 2018 we have a big rematch between two of the best fighters in the world, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Both fighters have a big fan base, but I noticed there is a lot of Canelo haters out there. The question I have is why is there so much disrespect for Canelo? Throughout the years I have heard comments such as; Canelo is overrated, Canelo is scared of “GGG”, and Canelo is a runner. The new one now is that Canelo is a cheater. After seeing what he has accomplished so far, he has proven he is one of the best fighters today.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez only had about 46 bouts as an amateur before he became professional at the young age of 15. As he started his professional career, he was really building his professional record at that point. It is very common in Mexico for boxers to start professionally at a very young age. Also Canelo was fighting grown men building his career in his teenage years. As he got more known, he was getting more attention from the media due to his unique Irish look with the red hair. I believe this is what started the Canelo hype. He hit the big stage in 2010 on the undercard of Mayweather, JR. Vs Mosley, when he fought his biggest test up to date against Jose Miguel Cotto. Even though he was hurt in the 1st round, he overcame that and stopped Cotto by the 9th round. Ever since then until now, Canelo has fought the best fighters out there and has a record of 12-1-1 against former or current world champions. Yeah he had close fights with Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara where he won close decisions. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, he was competitive against those guys. If Canelo was not that great, he would have clearly lost to those fighters.

Ok, Canelo lost to Mayweather, JR., but Canelo was inexperienced when they fought. In addition Mayweather, JR. is one of the best fighters of all time and fought Canelo at the right time. I can guarantee if they fight again, it would be a different fight and Canelo would do better. Sure, maybe James Kirkland and Amir Khan were sure wins for Canelo, but he delivered the knockouts right? How about Canelo’s win over Miguel Cotto? There were many fans that were doubting him in that fight. He won that fight clearly.
Overrated? I think not.

As the Canelo Vs “GGG” fight was brewing, we kept hearing that Canelo was afraid of “GGG”. There was probably like a two year build for this fight and really it’s not that long. So, Canelo was afraid of “GGG” because of the two year build up? If you want to blame anybody for the buildup, just blame the promoters. Besides everyone waited 6 years for the Mayweather, JR. Vs Pacquiao, so what is 2 years for a big fight? The Canelo Vs “GGG” fight happened last year and it was a great competitive fight with action back and forth. Sure there was controversy with the scorecards, and for the record I had “GGG” winning the fight 115-113. Once again, the scorecards were bad, but blame the judges. Besides Daniel Jacobs, Canelo gave “GGG” one of his toughest fights up to date.

Scared? I don’t think so.

After the “GGG” fight, fans were calling Canelo a runner. “GGG’s” trainer, Abel Sanchez, pointed this out as well in the recent press conference. If anybody seen Canelo’s career, you should know he has more of a counter punching style. I have been hearing for years the typical Mexican style of boxing should be a fighter that comes forward and shows a lot of heart in the ring. As far as I know most of the greats from Mexico were counter punchers or great technicians and not just straight brawlers. Miguel Canto, Carlos Zarate, Ricardo Lopez and the Marquez brothers just to name a few. Canelo also has 34 KO’s out of 49 wins. That don’t sound like much of a runner to me.

As a couple of days ago, Canelo tested positive for the performance enhancing drug called Clenbuterol. Per Canelo, this has been said as a result of meat contamination in Mexico. This has been happening with athletes in Mexico. Most recently in boxing, Mexico’s Francisco Vargas and Luis Nery tested positive for this drug as well. I would say it is embarrassing that a professional like Canelo failed this test and he should have been more careful of what he ate. However, I’m going to say Canelo is a clean fighter and he never failed a test in his prior fights.

Also this was a voluntary pre-test.

Regardless of the outcome in the rematch between Canelo Vs “GGG” II, Canelo already deserves his respect for what he has done in the sport. There is a reason why he is one of the biggest draws in boxing. No more hating folks.

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