Canelo: Mayweather doesn’t take chances to make good fights

By Boxing News - 03/19/2015 - Comments

canelo7657By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez thinks Floyd Mayweather Jr (47-0, 26 KOs) plays it safe in his fights to win without taking any chances rather than him taking risks in order to please his fans.

Canelo, 24, who was soundly beaten by Mayweather in their fight in September 2013, is hoping that Mayweather’s fight against Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) will be an entertaining one for the boxing fans.

“He [Mayweather] doesn’t let you expose anything,” Canelo said via Fighthype.com. “He’s a fighter that is fine winning a round with three punches. He doesn’t take chances to make a good fight. He doesn’t care how he wins, just that he wins.”

I don’t know what Canelo is talking about when he says Mayweather is fine winning rounds with three punches, because I saw a lot of rounds in which Mayweather landed a lot of shots against Canelo. I’m sure Canelo wishes Mayweather had landed only three punches per round against him, because the fight would have been a lot closer than it turned out to be.

Rather than saying that Mayweather is comfortable winning rounds with three punches, a more accurate thing for Canelo to say is that Mayweather is comfortable winning rounds not letting his opponents land stupid shots.

Mayweather is smart about his defense. He doesn’t let his opponents nail him with shots for the fun of it just so that the boxing fans can get a good show. Mayweather is especially careful about the shots his opponents land when they’re light heavyweight sized fighters, who rehydrate into the 170s while fighting welterweights and junior middleweights instead of middleweights.

“It’s very good. The fight had to be done for the fans, and hopefully it’s an attractive fight,” said Canelo.

The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight will be as attractive as it needs to be. But if Canelo is hoping that Mayweather will get sloppy on purpose just to make it an interesting fight, he’s going to be mistaken. Mayweather isn’t going to fight a reckless fight just to please some bloodthirsty fans that want to see his blood on the canvas.

It would be good if Canelo practiced what he preaches about wanting to see exciting fights. I seem to remember seeing Canelo fighting against the ropes for the entire second half of his fight against Austin Trout in their fight in 2013. Canelo didn’t take any chances in that fight, and yet it was still a fight that many boxing fans scored a draw.

I personally had Trout winning based on him being the much busier fighter of the two. If Canelo wanted to be an exciting fighter, he should fight WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, because that’s a fight that boxing fans want to see. They’re both the same size after they rehydrate after weighing in for their fights. The only difference is that Golovkin fights middleweights, whereas Canelo fights welterweights and junior middleweights.

I don’t see why Canelo is fighting guys like Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland, as both of them were rusty and inactive fighters when he signed to fight them. It makes no sense for Canelo to be fighting guys like Kirkland and Angulo where there are fighters the same size as him that would probably like to fight him like Golovkin, Peter Quillin and Daniel Jacobs.

Mayweather doesn’t have to take chances against Pacquiao on May 2nd. As long as Mayweather lands enough shots to win the fight, it’s only thing that matters. Why should Mayweather fight the same style as his opponent? That would be dumb for Mayweather to do. He’s not that type of a fighter.

Pacquiao is a slugger, and I don’t think anyone is asking him to become a pure boxer for the Mayweather fight, because it would be fatal for Pacquiao to do that. Even if Pacquiao wanted to go out and try and box Mayweather for 12 rounds, he wouldn’t be able to do it, because it’s not a style that Pacquiao has used during his career.

The only thing that Pacquiao would accomplish in trying to box Mayweather would be for Pacquiao to wind up getting a boxing lesson. Pacquiao is a good slugger, and you wouldn’t expect him to change his fighting style for any particular fight. That’s why it seems so odd that Canelo is taking a shot against Mayweather for him not being a slugger. Why should he? The last time I checked, Mayweather is 47-0, and Canelo 44-1-1 with three controversial fights against Trout, Lara and Carlos Molina. Mayweather is doing fine with his boxing style, so why should he change it for someone else? That would be a dumb thing for Mayweather to do.

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I personally don’t think Mayweather is going to play it safe against Pacquiao on May 2nd. Believe me, Mayweather is going to land a lot more punches than just three per round to win them. It’s going to be on Pacquiao to try and beat Mayweather by doing what he does best in slugging. That’s the only chance that Pacquiao has in this fight, because that’s his style of fighting.

Pacquiao isn’t going to beat Mayweather by a decision unless he staggers and/or drops him in the fight. If Pacquiao can’t do anything of those things, or if he can’t knock Mayweather out, then I believe Mayweather is going to win this fight by a fairly wide decision. It’s kind of a no-brainer in figuring out this fight. Pacquiao can’t out-box Mayweather, and if anyone believes that then I feel sorry for them.



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