By Dan Ambrose: Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, sees the September 14th fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) and WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) as being essentially a mismatch due to Mayweather’s superior boxing skills compared to Canelo.
Ellerbe said “He’s [Canelo] a very good fighter, but Floyd knew more about boxing as a kind than Canelo knows now. It [Canelo vs. Austin Trout] was closer than the scoring. Different ball game over here. He [Canelo] has a few glaring weaknesses that will be exploited.”
I agree with what Ellerbe is saying here. Mayweather Jr. is like someone that created a whole new way of boxing, and he’s like the originator of the Mayweather Jr. fighting style. Canelo has watched some of what Mayweather Jr. does, and seems to have incorporated parts of his style into his own.
However, Mayweather Jr. is the master, and Canelo is someone that doesn’t quite understand all the movements. There fight next month is probably going to be a match-up where the master [Mayweather] schools the pupil [Canelo], and shows in real time how the Mayweather fighting style is done.
It’s easy to guess what weaknesses that Ellerbe is homing in on with Canelo’s fighting style. The lack of stamina, and the inability to fight hard for 3 minutes is the first weakness.
Canelo needs lots of rest breaks after he throws punches. The other weaknesses is Canelo’s flat-footed fighting style, his ability to around the ring quickly, his poor work rate, his habit of loading up on everything he throws, and his tendency to get irritated when things aren’t going his way.
Canelo is so used to beating up on the guys that Golden Boy Promotions has put in front of him during his career that when he does get someone that he can’t destroy quickly, he gets frustrated. That’s a something that’s caused by Canelo having been matched against too many weak opponents during his career.
Canelo can’t do anything about his flat-footed fighting style, his low work rate and poor stamina. Those are going to be facts of life that he’s going to be stuck with his entire career. But Canelo can choose to decide how he reacts to being in with a high quality fighter like Mayweather when things started getting out of control for him.
Instead of turning red in the face and acting annoyed/angry that he’s getting hit so much, Canelo needs to keep his head, stay calm, and try to think about what he can to stop Mayweather’s domination. If Canelo gets angry, he’s going to get clowned for 12 rounds by Mayweather.
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