By Dan Ambrose: Paulie Malignaggi was impressed with some of the things he saw from Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last Saturday night in his win over Amir Khan, but for the most part, Canelo looked like the same flawed fighter that he’d seen in the past from his past fights.
Malignaggi thinks Canelo will lose to Gennady Golovkin right now with his current flawed fighting style. Malignaggi didn’t like the way Canelo failed to use his jab in the fight. He was just looking to land big power shots and forgetting about jabbing. As a result, Khan was able to jab Canelo frequently in the first four rounds to control the fight.
Malignaggi thinks Canelo would be reduced to having to fight a perfect fight against Golovkin if he wanted to have a chance to win the fight. Canelo would be in the same position as Khan was against him. This is the same thoughts that Floyd Mayweather Sr. has about Canelo’s chances against Golovkin. He also thinks Canelo would be in the role of Khan in having to move and fight perfectly if he wanted to keep from getting beaten.
Canelo did stop Khan in the 6th round, but he was struggling and appearing to lose rounds despite the odd scoring from two of the judges that had him in the lead against Khan. One judge had Canelo winning 4 rounds to 1, and it didn’t look like Khan could do anything right with this particular judge.
“We saw power. He showed power. I really — you’re supposed to jab with a jabber, at the very least, and he barely did that,” said Malignaggi to Fighthub.com. “Canelo is what he is, and he’s a good fighter, but the flaws that he has, for me, he continues not to fix them. He clearly has troubles when guys jab him. He doesn’t jab back,” said Malignaggi.
Canelo’s inability to jab will haunt him if he chooses to agree to a fight against Gennady Golovkin. If he doesn’t take that fight, then it won’t be a big deal because he’ll likely continue to be matched up against lighter fighters that don’t have the weight or the arm length to expose him the equal sized Golovkin would.
Malignaggi didn’t mention Canelo’s problems in cutting off the ring against Khan. Canelo looked hopeless in that department. The only reason he was able to finally land some shots on Khan was because Khan stopped moving as much in the 5th and 6th rounds, and chose to try and exchange with him.
“You’re able to slow the pace down and put him into these lulls. He’s not your typical Mexican fighter that just pressures you, he actually can box a little bit, but he just gives the illusion of boxing, because a boxer has a jab, and Canelo doesn’t really jab a lot,” said Malignaggi. “But he has enough fast twitch muscle to where he can get these snappy shots off. It makes him a little bit more versatile than your typical Mexican pressure fighter. Some things he’s lacking, some things he has better than those typical Mexican fighters. Some things he does worse than a typical Mexican fighter. I’d like to see some improvements, but the same flaws I knew Canelo had going into tonight, he showed me he still has them.”
A fighter that jabs Canelo and moves will beat him every time, as long as they have a chin and the stamina to move around the ring for 12 rounds. Fighters like Chris Eubank Jr., Billy Joe Saunders, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo and Erislandy Lara would be a real problem for Canelo.
We already know Lara is a problem for Canelo because he almost beat him in their fight in 2014. Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy were just happy to get out of the Lara fight with a questionable win. Lara was told to get in the back of the line for a second fight against Lara. In other words, forget about fighting Canelo ever again because it’s not happening.
“I pick GGG in that fight. It’s another thing where size matters, and in that particular situation it’ll be GGG who’s the bigger guy, and it’ll be Canelo walking the tightrope. I can’t really say anything changed. I still favor GGG in the fight,” said Malignaggi.