Canelo says he won’t fight the way Mayweather wants him to

By Boxing News - 08/14/2013 - Comments

canelo 02(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: The red-haired WBA/WBA junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) says he’s not going to let himself get lured into fighting the way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) wants him to in their Showtime televised pay per view fight next month in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Canelo believes he’s going to be able to fight his fight, and Mayweather Jr. will have to adjust to that.

Canelo said this as quoted by Yahoo Sports “I’m a strong-minded fighter. I’m not going to fight the fight he wants me to do. I will fight the fight I need to fight to win.”

It might not matter which plan Canelo uses, it’s going to be something that Mayweather Jr. can adapt to without any problems. Canelo’s main way of fighting is to plod forward and look to slug it out with opponents in close in the same manner that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. does, but that’s probably not going to work against Mayweather Jr. That’s pretty much the only way Canelo fight for any length of time.

If he tries to fight on the move using speed, Canelo will tire out too quickly. He doesn’t have the stamina to be able to move around the ring like Mayweather Jr. does. I think that’s the only way Canelo won’t be fighting Mayweather Jr’s fight if he chooses to move. Canelo can’t move well enough to fight in that manner, even if he trains specifically for that style.

Canelo might be able to spar that way, but he won’t be able to fight that way with all that weight that he carries around on his short frame. It’s down to Canelo plodding or nothing, and Mayweather Jr. wants Canelo to fight in this way because he dominates flat-footed fighters like him.

It would be interesting if Canelo tried to fight in a style that he normally doesn’t fight in, but I don’t think he has a lot options. Canelo is pretty a straight forward plodder. The one fight where he deviated from that was against Austin Trout last April where Canelo fought passively for most of the fight, but I think Canelo should have lost that fight.



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