By Scott Gilfoid: 20-year-old WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (36-0-1, 26 KO’s) has started training for his first defense of his World Boxing Council title against #3 ranked WBC junior middleweight contender Ryan Rhodes (45-4, 31 KO’s) for a bout that will be taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Alvarez is coming off of an impressive one-sided 12 round decision over another Brit, Matthew Hatton on March 5th. Now Alvarez faces one more British fighter in the 34-year-old Rhodes and this fight promises to be just as much of a mismatch as the Alvarez-Hatton fight. Rhodes has a decent knockout record but his fights have come largely against British and European opposition rather than world class fighters.
This is a huge step for Rhodes, who is getting up there in age at 34. My guess is it’s going to be over early. I’ve seen Rhodes shook up in the past by European fodder and that’s not a good sign for him coming in against a fighter with heavy hands like Alvarez. Rhodes is a slick fighter but once he gets hit, it’s going to take all the slickness out of his game.
It’s worrisome that Alvarez is starting training camp so early. Normally fighters opt for between six to eight weeks of training before fights. But Alvarez will have trained for at least 10 weeks by the time he steps in the ring with Rhodes. This is a bit much if you ask me. Hopefully, Alvarez doesn’t over-train for this fight and end up too weak to win as impressively as he would otherwise. Alvarez will win regardless but if he over-trains, he’ll not destroy Rhodes as easily as he would have if he had just put in six weeks.
Rhodes has been fighting guys like Jamie Moore, Luca Messi and Rocky Junior in his last three fights. Decent guys but not in Alvarez’s league, believe me. This is going to be a hopeless mismatch.
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