(Photo credit: Alma Montiel) By Jason Kim: WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s) didn’t win over everyone last Saturday night with his 12 round unanimous decision over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (46-1-1, 32 KO’s) in their pay per view battle on HBO. Former WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins thinks that unbeaten WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) would beat Martinez if the two guys fought.
Speaking on his twitter yesterday, Hopkins said “Canelo is trouble. Canelo beats Martinez easily.”
The only problem I have with this statement is that Hopkins is with Golden Boy Promotions, who just happens to be Alvarez’s promoter. So it’s kind of hard to know whether Hopkins is on the level here or just saying Alvarez is better because he’s in the promoter mode of conversation.
There’s no doubt that Alvarez is a fine fighter and has a lot of amazing skills as power going for him. His 5th round destruction of welterweight Josesito Lopez last Saturday night was very impressive to say the least. Alvarez put Lopez down three times in the fight and took him out with a flurry of shots in the 5th. However, this was Lopez we’re talking about, not Martinez. Alvarez is someone that we really don’t know yet how good he is because he’s been so carefully matched by Golden Boy.
Instead of seeing Alvarez fighting top junior middleweight contenders like Erislandy Lara and Vanes Martirosyan, we’ve seen him fighting guys like Matthew Hatton, Alfonso Gomez, Shane Mosley, Josesito Lopez, Carlos Baldomir, Ryan Rhodes and Lovemore N’dou. To say that Alvarez has been spoon opposition up until now is really being kind to him, because he’s not faced anyone that you could remotely call a dangerous fighter.
So until Alvarez fights an actual live body that can fight back, I’ll without my judgement on whether he can beat Martinez or not. Based on what I saw of him last Saturday night against Lopez, I’d have to say no. Lopez was able to hit Alvarez cleanly all night long and that’s not a good sign.
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