By Jason Kim: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) is still being coddled by being matched against older fighters past their prime despite having held the World Boxing Council title for an entire year now since last March in 2011. Alvarez, 21, faces another older fighter in 40-year-old Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s) on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s really hard to hold back laughter when you look at the ranking that the WBC recently gave Mosley. Before the fight was signed, Mosley wasn’t ranked at all by the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies in the junior middleweight division. It’s understandable, because how can a sanctioning body rank a fighter in the top 15 when he hasn’t won a fight in three years like Mosley? His last win was in January 2009. That’s three years. Well, the WBC ranked Mosley after the Alvarez-Mosley fight was signed and moved him all the way up to the #3 in the WBC 154 pound rankings. That sure helps cover Alvarez, doesn’t it? No one can criticize him for a taking a soft touch when Mosley is ranked #3. But Alvarez is taking a soft opponent and he has been for a long time. As a champion, Alvarez really needs to step it up against the legitimate top contenders and not the guys that Golden Boy Promotions is digging up to cart into the ring to fight him.
Alvarez defeated fringe welterweight contender Matthew Hatton to win the vacant WBC junior middleweight title last year in March. Alvarez has now defended the title three times against Ryan Rhodes, Alfonso Gomez, and Kermit Cintron. That’s mighty weak opposition. Cintron has looked like a faded fighter for at least a couple of years, Gomez is a pumped up welterweight without the power or the size to compete at 154. Rhodes, although ranked high by the WBC, he hadn’t fought anyone good to deserve that ranking and he was easily beaten by Alvarez.
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