(Photo credit Stephanie Trapp: SHOWTIME) By By Babatis Banda: It is a fact that this will be one of the biggest boxing matches in recent history. It is fueled by a strong belief in some quarters that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, being the younger, bigger and more powerful opponent will be the one to finally defeat the P4P great in Floyd Mayweather Jr.. While that is not difficult to imagine, real life often carry with it painful realities.
I will not be the one to write-off Canelo as just another statistic on Floyd’s resume. I believe that there is a reason why Canelo is still undefeated in 42 fights with 30 stoppages.
In all sport, there are the good ones and then the outstanding ones, the talented. Talent is purely skill, it could be inherited or just God given. The good ones may have learnt it, worked hard or used hook and crook methods. There is a marked difference with these categories. Talent is associated with instinct, natural flow and capability. The other category relies on size, power, hard-work and so on.
The talented do things very few can. The talented have an inner clock that seems to control what they do to perfection, it is involuntary to some extent and it sets the adjustments they need naturally. The average or the good rely on attributes that are common to the ordinary. They separate themselves through various aspects that are physical in nature, power, strength, size, resilience etc. If these physical aspects are tamed or controlled, they usually go into oblivion. This is the type that needs their corner to tell them what to do next or how to react.
Mayweather is all about talent. I know that Canelo is physical, and has size to his advantage. If that is enough to offset pure talent, then we wait to see. What I see happening is that Canelo’s physical attributes will work against him come fight night. If he will not land his power punches, Canelo will get frustrated, worse he will get fatigued. If Canelo comes in really heavy, he won’t be able to carry that weight around with Floyd’s movement for too long. They say that the elephant does not feel the weight of its own tasks, but in this case, we may have to revisit this proverb after September the 14th.
If wishes were horses, we would all ride them. Many of us have wishes, but it is important to know that a wish is but a wish. The painful reality is that Floyd will not trade punches with Canelo. Floyd might not stand in front of Canelo too long. All Floyd needs to do is use movement, speed and pure brains to confuse Canelo. Canelo punishes the body with those big punches against immobile opposition. Canelo is able to off-load those combinations against fighters that stand in front of him too long. I know this is boxing, Canelo will catch Mayweather once in a while, but to bank on that for a knock-out, especially that Floyd has never sat on the canvas before is a little far-fetched.
The painful reality is that Canelo might not even be very competitive on the night. The anticipation this fight has brought out is only a reflection of how big the fan base for Canelo is, and how defeating Mayweather is the greatest wish for any boxer.
Comments are closed.