Chavez Jr: Canelo still has a lot to prove

By Boxing News - 04/28/2013 - Comments

canelo6By Dan Ambrose: Former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. feels that WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) hasn’t yet arrived at the elite level in his career after his close decision win over WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout this month in San Antonio, Texas.

While the judges had the fight scored 115-112, 118-109 and 116-111 for Canelo, Chavez Jr. saw the fight as a really close one.

Chavez Jr. said to ESPN Deportes “It was more close than many of the judges had it…he had trouble because Trout is a difficult fighter. He [Canelo] gained some credibility because he had been fighting lower weight fighters…he has much to prove after this fight, and I don’t see him among the elite of the world of boxing. I think it was a good win but it lacked much.”

It’s definitely true that Canelo isn’t among the elite fighters because this fight really could have gone the other way. Since when do you have a fighter out-landed winning by a lopsided decision? I can’t remember ever seeing a fight where one guy has landed a lot more punches losing the fight by a 118-109 score.

That judge really tainted Canelo’s win in a huge way because boxing fans see a score like that and it gives them a bad impression because they think he didn’t deserve it. You can’t be an elite fighter when you’re winning questionable decisions and treating it like it was a lopsided decision.

Canelo should be looking to fight Trout in a rematch in a neutral venue to clear up the controversy about the win, but instead Canelo is moving on and talking about how great his victory was.

I didn’t see anything great about it. I had Trout winning the fight based on his aggression, his higher number of punches landed [and I don’t buy the Compu-box stats] and his control of the fight.

Trout did more than enough to deserve a win. Canelo can’t be an elite fighter when he gets a win like that and moves on instead of looking to fight Trout again to prove that he can beat him without controversy. It’s not just me that sees Canelo’s win as controversial. A ton of other people do as well, and I know that bothers the legions of Canelo fans but you have to let see the fight without having a favorite in order to score it correctly. I had Trout winning by a lopsided decision and I’ve seen the fight several times with the sound turned off to shut out the noise of Canelo’s fans.



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