By Allan Fox: Commentator and former two division world champion Paulie Malignaggi says he doesn’t like the Saul “Canelo Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs), which is scheduled for HBO pay-per-view on May 6. Malignggi sees the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight as more of a business related match-up, which is a self-serving one that will help everyone involved in the fight.
It will help enrich Canelo, his promoters at Golden Boy, Chavez Jr., and his management team. But as far as giving the boxing public a good product in terms of a competitive match-up, Malignaggi sees the fight coming up short in that department.
Malignaggi notes that Canelo’s Mexican fans like the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight for some reason. Like a lot of boxing fans, Malignaggi sees Chavez Jr. only having his good china as an asset for him against Canelo. He sees Chavez Jr. being limited at the weight. The fights taking place at a catchweight of 164 ½ pounds, and that’s probably going to weaken Chavez Jr. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez sees Chavez Jr. being weak at the weight.
You can argue that Golden Boy Promotions has been focusing on exclusively the business side of things for much of Canelo’s career. That’s why you’ve seen Canelo matched against fighters like Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Amir Khan and Liam Smith lately. That’s why Canelo is being matched against Chavez Jr. All those fighters have one thing in common, and that’s the fact they’re all weak opposition.
Liam Smith isn’t one of the better fighters at 154. He was a weak champion, who would have likely never won a world title if he had to go through the Charlo brother, Erislandy Lara, Julian “J-Rock” Williams or Demetrius Andrade. Canelo is being matched in a way that suggests that Golden Boy doesn’t have confidence in him that he can beat the best.
It’s hard to picture Chavez Jr. being able to pull off an upset in this fight. Canelo has the faster hands, and he’s going to have the perfect guy in front of him in Chavez Jr, who is slow like James Kirkland in terms of hand speed. Canelo was able to hit Kirkland at will with his shots in their fight in 2015. Canelo stopped Kirkland in the 3rd. If Kirkland had been able to take Canelo’s shots all night long, then it might have been a more competitive fight. It appeared that Kirkland hurt Canelo at one point with one of his big shots. Chavez Jr. can hit at least as hard as Kirkland when he lands with perfect form, and he has better boxing skills than him.
Malignaggi said this to Fighthype.com about the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight:
“The fights going to sell, but I don’t think it’s a great fight. I don’t think there’s anything to get excited about. But maybe the Mexican fans have a reason that I’m not seeing. The Mexicans will get excited about it. I’m not going to hate on it for that reason. Maybe it’ll be fun to watch. I don’t think it does anything for anybody. But it does something for everyone involved. At the end of the day, its business, and this fight proves it’s more of a business than a sport. Chavez Jr. will come to fight. One thing about Chavez; whether he trains for not, the guy does show up to fight. Whether he can fight is a whole different story, but he does show-up to fight, and he has a great chin. He’ll do the best he can. I just think he’s limited in his weight,” said Malignaggi about Chavez Jr.
Adriern Broner interested in facing Ricky Burns in the UK
If Adrien Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) wins his next fight against Adrian Granados (18-4-2, 12 KOs) on February 18, then he says he’s open to the idea of facing WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns (41-5-1, 14 KOs) in the UK for a big fight. Burns will need to win his April 15 unification fight against Julius Indongo (21-0, 11 KOs) at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. Broner v. Granados will be taking place at the Cintas Center, in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The money will need to be right for the 27-year-old Broner to take the fight with Burns. The two of them have talked about a fight taking place between them in the past, but the fight never took place. Perhaps this time the fight can finally get made. Burns will need to beat the big punching southpaw Indongo, and it’s not a given that he can do that. Burns struggled in his last fight against Kiryl Relikh(21-1, 19 KOs) last October. Burns barely won that fight. If not for Relikh starting so slowly in the first half of the match, Burns would have lost.
“It’s going to be an enormous year for me and I’m at a much more positive, great stage and on a real good path now,” said Broner to skysports.com. “I would love to face Ricky Burns and most definitely you could get me to the UK. Make my numbers right and we will have one hell of a fight.”
Broner has turned his career around in winning his last two fights against Ashley Theophane and Khabib Allakhverdiev. That’s the good news. What’s bad is Broner failed to make weight in his last fight against Theophane last April, causing him to lose his WBA World super lightweight title. The fact that Broner couldn’t make weight for a simple title defense against fringe level contender Theophane makes you wonder how much longer can Broner make weight for the 140lb division.
Broner balloons up in weight in between fights, and he’s arguably a full welterweight at this point. Broner is still draining down to fight at 140, but he’s definitely a welterweight. Broner has been beaten twice at welterweight, and he doesn’t seem to have enough hand speed or punching power to compete against the best in the 147lb division; hence we’re now seeing him in the 140lb division.
The 33-year-old Burns is getting up there in age, and his boxing skills are starting to deteriorate. He’s always been beaten by Terence Crawford, Omar Figueroa Jr. and Dejan Zlaticanin. Burns would also have a loss to Raymundo Beltran if the judges have scored the fight the way lot of boxing fans saw it. Burns was fighting with a broken jaw from round 2, and he rarely threw punches. Burns was younger than, and he’s not improved since the controversial draw with Betran. The match-making has changed for Burns with him facing weaker opposition, and that includes his fights against Michele Di Rocco and Josh King.
Tony Bellew weighing 225lbs for David Haye fight
Cruiserweight Tony Bellew (28-2-1, 18 KOs) has bulked up to 225 pounds for his heavyweight clash against David Haye (28-2, 26 KOs) on March 4 at the O2 Arena in London, England. Bellew, 33, usually fights at 200lbs at cruiserweight. He and Haye agreed to face each other at heavyweight in a fight on Sky Box Office PPV in the UK. The fight is viewed as a mismatch by most boxing fans, as Bellew has never fought at heavyweight, and he doesn’t have the speed, power, experience or the athleticism that the 36-year-old Haye has going for him. The lack experience for Bellew is something you can’t ignore, because you need that to have a real chance against a fighter like Haye. However, the Haye-Bellew fight seems to be more about money than it being a true sporting event.
Bellew is viewed as cashing out in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. Bellew is in a situation where he’s going to need to fight the winner of the Mairis Briedis fight if/when he moves down to cruiserweight. Bellew doesn’t have the boxing skills to beat either of those guys in this writer’s opinion.
With Bellew bulking up to 225lbs, it makes it less likely that he’ll move back down to cruiserweight after the Haye fight. No matter what happens in the Haye fight, I think Bellew is going to stay at heavyweight, and maybe try and get a fight against IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua if he can pick up several wins against weak opposition.
Bellew’s promoter is Eddie Hearn, and he also promotes Joshua. Hearn is arguably more of a business minded promoter than one focused on the sporting angle of fights. Hearn jumped at the chance to make the circus like fight between Haye and Bellew. My guess is Hearn will readily make a fight between Bellew and Joshua in the near future, even if he loses to Haye.
“I’m in great shape and am ready to go. At the moment, I am 225lbs and my preparation is fantastic,” said Bellew to skysports.com. “While he [Haye] is posing in the sun, I am grafting in the cold, but it is what it is, we will see.”
I don’t know how hard Bellew is working if he’s bulked up to 225lbs already. Yeah, some of the weight is muscle, but I’d say a good percentage has got to be fat. No one puts muscle that quickly.