(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Vitali Shaposhnikov: “Is he tough like Cotto? No. Can he box like Cotto? No. Can he punch like Cotto? No. Has he faced the same opposition that Cotto’s faced? No. So am I worried? Absolutely not,” said Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a recent interview with RingTV.
Is comparing Canelo to Miguel Cotto plausible? Does it make sense claiming that beating Cotto is a guarantee at beating Alvarez? Are they similar in the way they fight?
For Mayweather Jr., math means everything. One of Floyd’s favorite expressions is: numbers don’t lie. But can the complexity of his opponents be expressed or thought of as simple numbers?
Is Canelo tough like Cotto? Time will tell. Alvarez has not yet been through the same wars as Miguel Cotto, either due to his lower level competition or possibly his dominating boxing abilities. Either way, claiming that Alvarez is not as tough as Cotto is extremely premature at this point in his career.
Can Canelo box like Cotto? As far as technical boxing skill itself is concerned, I will say yes. I have seen Saul throw some very unique combination, coming from various angles. His uppercuts are phenomenal, and so are his hooks. His boxing is strictly by the book, which makes his punches very effective and strong. This is not to say that Cotto is not as good as Canelo; that would be very hard to argue. What I do know, is that Cotto has not displayed as much technicality in his fights simply due to the fact that he prefers to trade.
Can he punch like Cotto? If anyone is confident that Cotto can punch harder than Canelo, I would like to hear your explanation. Miguel is a great fighter and brawler, and we have seen him land some very impressive power shots. Saul’s and Miguel’s KO percentages are very close, Cotto’s is 73%, and Canelo’s is 69.7%, thus we can assume that they are both pretty heavy punchers. The bottom line is that Canelo can land power shots, and we have seen him do so.
Has Canelo faced the same opposition that Cotto has faced? No. Miguel’s resume is clearly that of a Hall of Fame fighter, as he has never entered the ring anything but ready to give it all. He has fought many good fighters and great champions, and was always looking to fight the best. Alvarez is getting there, but still has some heavy competition to go through before being able to equate his resume to Cotto’s.
Should Mayweather Jr. be worried? Always.
It’s simply not smart comparing any opponent to any other, especially when facing a young champion that is still developing their career and even style. Alvarez might not be as good as Mayweather Jr. at adapting during the fight, but he is as unpredictable as they get.
It’s only hard to teach an old dog new tricks, while the young ones are eager and willing. Alvarez is unlike anyone else that Floyd had dominated in the past, not to say that he is better, just harder to strategize against. The way he performed and the punches against Josesito Lopez, was not the same as he did againt Austin Trout.
Of course all this is just me thinking on paper. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has never been beat. He has never been outboxed or outsmarted, outworked or overpowered, and there is absolutely no reason to bet against him until such happens. If he keeps boxing, his time to lose will come, and no one ever knows when that moment will arrive.
This coming Saturday night has the potential of being that very date when Mayweather Jr. is faced with a much harder task than he expects.
So should he be worried? I think Canelo deserves to be worried about.
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