De La Hoya: Canelo Alvarez can carry boxing for the next 15 years

By Boxing News - 05/05/2012 - Comments

Image: De La Hoya: Canelo Alvarez can carry boxing for the next 15 yearsBy Jason Kim: Golden Boy Promotions president believes that WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez is going to be a huge star, but he believes he’s going to be long lasting one as well. The 21-year-old Alvarez, who has been carefully matched against mostly beatable over-matched opposition up to this point in his career, faces 40-year-old Shane Mosley tonight at them MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

De La Hoya said “Canelo can carry boxing for the next 15 years. He’s boxing’s next superstar.”

I may be missing something, but Alvarez’s actual performances aren’t all that impressive despite him facing shot guys or fringe level fighters for the most part. He’s not impressing against the limited guys that Golden Boy Promotions are feeding him. For example, tonight Alvarez faces Mosley. He’s considered a shot fighter and hasn’t won a bout in three years.

He’s ranked #4 by the WBC, but that’s a ranking that is hardly deserved given what Mosley has done in the ring in the past three years. How do you get ranked #4 by the WBC when you haven’t won a fight since January 2009. This is the same kind of easy match-making Golden Boy has been doing for Alvarez for some time now.

In the last year, Alvarez has fought Matthew Hatton, a welterweight fringe contender with no power, Ryan Rhodes, Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron. Before those fights, Alvarez was matched against Carlos Baldomir, Lovemore N’dou and Jose Miguel Cotto. Simply put, Alvarez STILL hasn’t fought anyone good and yet he’s still not looking good against the limited opponents he’s being put in with. De La Hoya thinks Alvarez can carry boxing for the next 15 years.

I guess that can happen as long as Alvarez keeps fighting guys like the above mentioned opponents. Sure, he can probably hang on for 20 years if those are the guys he’s going to be matched against. But if he gets put in with Erislandy Lara, Vanes Martirosyan, Austin Trout, Sergiy Dzinziruk or James Kirkland, I can see Alvarez getting beaten up and schooled.



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