De La Hoya: Canelo is coming into his “Man strength!”

By Boxing News - 11/17/2015 - Comments

1-cotto-canelo-nyc (6)By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is very high on his fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) for his fight this Saturday night against Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs). De La Hoya thinks that Canelo isn’t the same fighter that was beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and who struggled against Erislandy Lara just last year.

According to De La Hoya, Canelo is just now coming into his “man strength” at age 25. It’s unclear how his power would change that much from a year or two, but De La Hoya believes that Canelo is more powerful than he was before.

With that said, De La Hoya still is extremely reluctant to let Canelo test his “man strength” on a fighter his own size in Gennady Golovkin, as De La Hoya doesn’t think that Canelo is a full middleweight despite him being the same size as Golovkin. I’m not sure how that works out. I guess for De La Hoya, Canelo won’t be a full middleweight until he’s heavier than he is now.

“He’s [Canelo] getting his man strength,” De La Hoya said to Fighthub. “His speed, I don’t know where it came from.”

Well let’s hope that Canelo’s man strength helps him fight a better fight against Cotto on Saturday night than it did in his bouts against Mayweather, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. In those fights, it wasn’t Canelo’s strength that was the problem for him. It was his slow feet, his inability to throw combinations without gassing out, and his problems cutting off the ring. Canelo’s punching power looked formidable in those fights but he looked like he could only fight in brief spurts before getting tired and needing a rest break.

Judging how Canelo looked in his fight against James Kirkland last May, I don’t think anything has changed with how he fights. He still fights in brief spurts, he still gets tired easily, and he still has slow feet. The only thing that seems to have changed is that he’s looking bigger now.

That might explain why De La Hoya thinks that Canelo is coming into his “Man strength” at age 25. Canelo is almost 180s at his age, and when you have that kind of size for the middleweight division, you’re going to have punching power. But what’s hard to understand is why Canelo and De La Hoya don’t believe that he’s a middleweight. How are you not a middleweight when you’re rehydrating to 175?

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“It’s no secret that me and Miguel are not 160 pounders,” Canelo said to the latimes.com about a potential fight against Golovkin. “Our body structures are not there yet. I would love to fight Triple G when the time comes, and I’m willing and able to do it. When the time comes, I’m more than willing,” Canelo said.

It’s going to be real test of Canelo and De La Hoya’s will power for them to resist taking a fight against Golovkin if Canelo breezes through Cotto on Saturday. Unless Canelo can get a big money fight against someone like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather Jr, Golovkin will be the biggest money option out there for him.



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