By Sean McDaniel: Sometimes it doesn’t matter if a fighter has the better boxing skills, because the younger and stronger can overcome skill with power and youth. This was never more apparent in this Saturday’s fight between WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (36-0-1, 26 KO’s) and challenger Ryan Rhodes (45-4, 31 KO’s).
It doesn’t a genius to know that Rhodes, 34, has the better skills compared to the 20-year-old Alvarez. But in this case Rhodes’ skills won’t help him in this fight because he’s facing a much younger and stronger fighter than him with Alvarez. Rhodes is working out fiendishly trying to turn back the clock to find enough youth in the tank to beat the hard hitting and youthful Alvarez.
However, Rhodes probably won’t be able to find enough power and youth to make it past the sixth round because Alvarez is looking powerful right now and with a huge 15,000 Mexican crowd backing him, Alvarez is going to be more than a handful for Rhodes. `The problem Rhodes has is the power from Alvarez. Rhodes hasn’t had to face that kind of power in his career and it’s a bit late in the game to start facing it now. If Rhodes’ wheels were working like they did say five or six years ago, he might have a chance to move enough to lose a narrow decision.
I can’t see him winning by moving in Mexico. Rhodes would have to fight and beat Alvarez in the trenches to get a win in Mexico. But at least Rhodes could make it tough on Alvarez by staying out of the way of his big shots. It would have to be a hit and run style attack by Rhodes. But he’s not the same fighter he was years ago and is now more of a flat footed fighter with decent power facing a much younger and much more powerful fighter in Alvarez.
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