By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer is now calling Saul “Canelo” Alvarez the brightest young star in boxing following his win over Alfredo Angulo last Saturday night. Canelo stopped an abnormally weak and passive Angulo in the 10th round.
Angulo looked so bad in the fight that you could make a case for every fighter on the card having an excellent chance at beating him, and we’re talking about a lot of lightweights like Ricardo Alvarez, Jorge Linares, Nihito Arakawa and Sergio Thompson. Angulo looked so bad that I think he would have easily lost even the lightweights on the card.
On Friday it was announced that the fight brought in 350,000 pay-per-view buys, and this news obviously has Schaefer over the moon with happiness, because it means that he doesn’t even need to match Canelo against a good opponent in order to make a ton of money with him. His fans will gladly pay to see him fight even if Golden Boy chooses not to step him up again after his loss to Floyd Mayweathber Jr. last September. Canelo already brushed of Erislandy Lara when he attempted to push for a fight against him after the Angulo fight. It wouldn’t be a big deal if Canelo would turn around and fight someone good, but he’s not going to fight anyone half as good as Lara next.
“The fans have spoken,” Schaefer happily said. “Canelo is without a doubt the brightest young star in the sport today. He’s been a huge star in Mexico for quite some time. Now there is no denying that he is a star in the United States as well. We’re already in discussions with Canelo to find the next opportunity to bring another exciting event to boxing fans.”
I’m not focusing on Canelo’s win over Angulo because that was a nothing win. I could see Schaefer getting excited if Canelo had actually beaten someone like Lara, but that’s not what’s happening. Canelo has been matched against two good fighters – Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr. – during his entire career, and the rest of the opponents that he’s faced have been of marginal talent.
Schaefer obviously is talking about Canelo’s popularity rather than his talent. Of course, Canelo is a highly popular fighter with fans. However, if you’re talking about Canelo’s actual talent, then that’s a much different situation. Canelo is probably below Lara in the talent department, and I could see him doing the same thing to Canelo that Mayweather did in his win over him. Lara has the blueprint now in how to beat Canelo by staying on the outside and avoiding his wide swings and hitting him with pot shots all night long. Lara would only need to follow what Mayweather did to him in order to win an easy fight.
With the way that Mayweather has been building Canelo up recently by calling him a huge star, it seems pretty obvious that Mayweather will be looking to face Canelo again next year in a rematch. The rematch isn’t needed, because Mayweather easily beat him by a 12 round decision. But with the huge amount of money that Mayweather made in the Canelo fight last September, it’s a forgone conclusion that he’ll be fighting him again. Canelo has already said that he’d like to fight Mayweather a second time to try and avenge his loss. Mayweather has 4 fights left on his Showtime/CBS contract, but he doesn’t have 4 big name opponents to fight. He’s facing Marcos Maidana next in May, and after that it could be Amir Khan or Danny Garcia. Those aren’t bight fights. Facing Canelo a second time will enable Mayweather to bring his PPV numbers back up to high levels.
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