By Allan Fox: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez will be fighting Shane Mosley on May 5th at the MGM Grand as the co-feature bout on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto on HBO pay-per-view. This is pretty bad match-up, and if it was the first time for Alvarez you might be able to give the guy a pass just this one.
However, Alvarez is facing some pretty mediocre fighters each time out and you can make a strong argument that WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is facing better opposition than Alvarez. Chavez Jr. has a reputation already for fighting less than dangerous opponents, but the guys that Chavez Jr. has been facing look a whole lot better than what Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has been fighting.
Here are the last five opponents for Alvarez:
* Kermit Cintron
* Alfonso Gomez
* Ryan Rhodes
* Matthew Hatton
* Lovemore N’dou
Okay, now compare those guys with Chavez Jr’s last five opponents:
* Marco Antonio Rubio
* Peter Manfredo Jr.
* Sebastian Zbik
* Billy Lyell
* John Duddy
There’s a lot of weaknesses in both guys’ opposition but Chavez Jr. has clearly faced the stiffer competition. Look at Rubi and Zbik. Those guys were top level opposition. Granted, Zbik was a paper champion when Chavez Jr. fought him, but he was still at least a top five guy. Rubio was ranked #1 by the WBC when Chavez Jr. recently beat him by a 12 round decision. I don’t agree with the #1 ranking for Rubio for a second, but he was good enough to rank near the top 5.
But Alvarez has been facing some really. Cintron, Gomez, Rhodes, Hatton and N’dou. None of those guys are fighters I would put anywhere near the top 10. And now Alvarez is facing Mosley, 40, who isn’t even ranked in the top 15 at all. I don’t know how the World Boxing Council can sanction this fight, but I know they will.
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