Is Canelo Alvarez overrated or underrated?

By BoxingRealist - 10/03/2014 - Comments

canelo0256By Br: I remember watching Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fight in 2008 against Larry Mosley, and I was amazed at his skill. He displayed incredible power and good body movement. If you go and analyze the rounds where round 2 by far caught my attention.

Many would say ‘well, who is that nobody he fought?’ Well regardless if the opponent, Canelo’s skill was on display and he continued to amuse us all by trucking through many opponents. It wasn’t until Canelo met real competition in Austin Trout, Floyd Mayweather Jr and contrary to belief Erislandy Lara (Even though I was appalled with the way Lara fought given the talk he stirred up).

Canelo is a highly skilled boxer, one whom is not afraid to fight any boxer, which is a wonderful. But his performance in important bouts seems to show another sign of the boxer that many do not see. In the his last two big fights, he looked horrible against Mayweather (Which I believe should not have taken place), and Lara in which, YES, Lara ran, but he exposed Canelo’s lack of footwork and ability to cut off the ring. Canelo will be fighting a long career and will be fighting boxers in the near future with incredible footwork and ring generalship but whether he does well in those fights is still too early to tell at this point. We only can go on how Canelo looked against Trout, Lara and Mayweather, and he didn’t look good in any of those fights.

Canelo possesses power and great chin alongside a heart of a lion, but he as a young fighter is not progressing in skill and is being put too early in the “Big Boys Club.” Canelo’s move to HBO opens up a whole army of competition, and I for one am not counting the young fighter out of winning. But his previous bouts show me no clear indication that he can compete with the best and look and look incredible in doing so. Can Canelo go in against the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, Demetrius Andrade and look exceptional?

I believe Canelo is rushing himself to climb on to the big pedestal that Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will be leaving in order to take fully control of the sport. But with that crazy addiction it has left behind there is huge doubt about Canelo’s skill level on the main stage. It leaves doubt if he could hold on the power as the pay-per-view cash cow with his mediocre performances. But I leave that for you to decide. Is the Saul Canelo Alvarez overated or underrated?



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