Roach doesn’t give Hatton any chance against Alvarez

By William Mackay: Photo credit Leopoldo Gonzalez -Trainer Freddie Roach doesn’t like the idea of Saul Alvarez and Matthew Hatton fighting for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title on Saturday night. Roach, who trains Manny Pacquiao, feels that this is bad for boxing because the 29-year-old Hatton still hasn’t fought anyone of quality yet during his career.

Roach sees this fight as a case of the WBC basically tossing a title to Alvarez to win. It’s really not that surprising, though, because Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., one of Roach’s fighters, is being allowed to fight fo the WBC middleweight title against paper champion Sebastian Zbik. Neither Chavez Jr. or Zbik have fought any real quality opposition, unless you count fringe contender John Duddy as a quality fighter.

It seems like Roach is forgetting the fact that his own fighter Chavez Jr. is also benefiting by the WBC with his #1 ranking despite a total lack of fights. You’d like to see Chavez Jr. prove himself against quality fighter like Daniel Jacobs or David Lemieux before being given a title shot.

Roach isn’t impressed with the opposition that both Hatton and Alvarez have been fighting during their careers.

The Hatton-Alvarez fight is more about the popularity of Alvarez rather than whether he deserves the shot. Alvarez, 20, is a huge star in Mexico, where his fights are watched by tens of millions of boxing fans, even though he’s still unproven and hasn’t really beaten any serious opponents. On Saturday night, Alvarez will still be unproven regardless of whether he heats Hatton or not.