Alvarez vs. N’dou: Saul matched up against another older fighter

By Boxing News - 11/21/2010 - Comments

By Jason Kim: World Boxing Council Silver light middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KO’s) will be matched up against another older fighter when he takes on 39-year-old Lovemore N’dou (48-11-2, 31 KO’s) on December 4th at the Estadio Beto Avila, Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico. Alvarez, 20, defeated 39-year-old Carlos Baldomir last September in Alvarez’s first defense of his newly created WBC Silver junior middleweight title. It was hoped that Alvarez would take on a fighter a little younger than 39 for his next fight, but it looks like another 39-year-old has been dug up for Alvarez to look good against.

I don’t mind a fighter padding his record, but when a guy like Alvarez is in the possession of a title, even a paper title like the Silver belt, he at least should take serious challengers from his own weight division and not scrape the welterweight division looking for opponents. N’dou holds the IBO welterweight title, but he’s not ranked in the top 15 by the four sanctioning bodies as far as I can tell. As such, I’d much prefer that Alvarez at least be matched up against someone from his own division and someone preferably ranked in the top 15, and not another 2nd tier opponent.

In his last four fights, Alvarez has fought Brian Camechis, Jose Miguel Cotto, Luciano Leonel Cuello, and Baldomir. I’m wondering what’s taking him so long to start cutting his teeth on top welterweight and junior middleweight opponents. I’d hate to see Alvarez brought along as slowly as Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has been in his career. Alvarez is supposed to be a future champion, but I haven’t seen anything from him that would suggest that he’s got what it takes to be a champion. He was hit regularly against undersized Cotto, and hurt in the 1st round of that fight.

I think Alvarez needs to shuck the Silver belt if he’s going to be matched against top fighters from the junior middleweight division. I think he’s good enough to beat N’dou, but that’s not saying a whole lot because N’dou is almost 40, and he’s a welterweight, not a junior middleweight.



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