De La Hoya: Canelo has the talent to be the best ever

By Boxing News - 08/24/2013 - Comments

can44444By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya thinks his red-headed fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) not only has the talent to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s), but also to be the best fighter ever in the sport. That’s a pretty tall order for the young 23-year-old Canelo, because his last win over Austin Trout was underwhelming to say the least, and certainly not what you’d see from the best ever.

De La Hoya thinks the flat-footed Canelo has the ability to be better than any fighter that ever breathed. If that’s to be the case, Canelo is going to have to improve 110% because he doesn’t look like even the best fighter in the junior middleweight division.

De La Hoys said this to ESPN as quoted by sdpnoticias.com “For me, I’ve heard that he’s [Canelo] going to be one of the best ever, and that says a lot. For me, I can be done. He’s barely starting out, he’s 23, and is facing the world’s best. He has to fight with all the champions, against the best in the world and then it will be. He has the possibility, the talent, and the attitude to be. He has all the talent and the whole package…we know he can be the first to defeat Floyd.”

I don’t think it’s possible for Caenlo to be the best ever, and him being 23 has nothing do with his potential. I think Canelo is one of those fighters that has matured early in life, and will pretty much stay as he is for a while before eventually starting to slow down, put on weight, and find himself being forced to fight guys in the middleweight, and eventually the super middleweight and possibly the light heavyweight divisions.

Once Canelo is fighting at middleweight, I see him getting beaten unless Golden Boy Promotions are going to have welterweights and/or junior middleweights fight him in the middleweight division. Don’t laugh. Canelo just fought a light welterweight Josesito Lopez last year, as Lopez moved up two divisions to fight Canelo in the junior middleweight division. And we all know that Canelo has been fighting welterweights despite him fighting in the 154 lb. division.

I just don’t see Canelo as having the talent to be the best ever. If De La Hoya and Golden Boy choose to match Canelo carefully against welterweights for a lot time, then I guess he can keep winning. But do you really want to call Canelo the best ever if that’s who he’s fighting.

When I think of the best fighter that ever breathed, I see someone that is fighting guys in his own weight class, and not pooling from the divisions below him for opponents. Canelo the best ever? Nah, I don’t see that in this life time. The best fighter that ever breathed would be someone that would make easy work of every one, someone that worked hard for 3 minutes of every round, and not gassing out after 4 rounds the way that Canelo did last April against Trout.



Comments are closed.