Saul Alvarez likely won’t become a star for beating Mosley

By Boxing News - 04/15/2012 - Comments

Image: Saul Alvarez likely won't become a star for beating MosleyBy Allan Fox: You can see what Golden Boy Promotions is trying to accomplish by putting their fighter WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) in with an old toothless lion like 40-year-old Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) on May 5th next month rather than a fighter with more skills and the possibility of giving Alvarez a much more competitive fight.

Golden Boy is choosing to put Alvarez in with what promises to be a mismatch against the near shot Mosley rather than putting Alvarez in with someone that will thrill boxing fans by having a fight that will be worth watching. It’s a gamble, because Golden Boy is hoping that casual boxing fans will suddenly see Alvarez as the real deal when he defeats Mosley. It will be the casual fan who doesn’t realize that Mosley hasn’t won a fight in three years and is essentially being put in to lose.

Oh, he’s not going to try to lose, but he’s been chosen because he’s not a real threat to beating Alvarez. But I don’t see this fight as turning Alvarez into any kind of star afterwards. Mosley has beaten too many times in the past two years, and it’s now old hat to see him losing. If this were a prime Mosley, then, yeah, Alvarez would be a star if he was able to beat him. But if Mosley still in his prime, Golden Boy would likely never let him anywhere close to Alvarez because he simply beat him.

Alvarez is a decent fighter but he doesn’t have the skills of a young Mosley or young Oscar De La Hoya for that matter. There’s something missing from his game that keeps well beneath those guys in the talent department. At 21, maybe Alvarez will someday acquire it but I’m not betting on it. He’s 21, but he’s an OLD 21, and I think he’s going to get too much better than he already is.

If Golden Boy Promotions is really serious about making Alvarez a star then they need to stop spoon feeding him fringe contenders or shot fighters and put him with the following guys one after another: James Kirkland, Vanes Martirosyan, Sergiy Dzinziruk, Erislandy Lara, Alfredo Angulo, Paul Williams, Delvin Rodriguez, Austin Trout, Miguel Cotto, Carlos Molina, Zaurbeck Baysangurov, Antonio Margarito, and Lukas Konecny.

Alvarez isn’t going to become a star by beating guys like 40-year-old Mosley, Kermit Cintron, Matthew Hatton and Ryan Rhodes. If he believes that those guys are going to him a star then he’s kidding himself.



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