By Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) Canelo gave himself a self-inflicted wound this week by choosing to pull out of the May 4th fight card headlined by Floyd Mayweather Jr. to fight WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout on regular non-PPV Showtime on April 20th at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
It was a bad decision by Canelo because he didn’t hurt Mayweather very much with that move because Mayweather is already guaranteed $30 million per fight by Showtime/CBS as part of his contract.
Canelo hurt himself by pulling out of the card because he’s still facing Trout, and that’s a fight that Canelo very well may lose. But here’s the kicker, Canelo won’t receive nearly as much publicity than he would have had he fought on the Mayweather card. Talk about your dumb moves.
Trout is basically all wrong for Canelo, and Golden Boy knows this. That’s why they tried like mad to keep Canelo from taking this fight because they realize that the slick southpaw Trout is too fast, moves too well around the ring, has much better defensive skills, range, arm length and stamina for the flat-footed Canelo to win this fight.
Don’t get me wrong, Canelo is a good junior middleweight, but he’s kind of a throwback type fighter. He’s like a heavier, more limited version over Juan Manuel Marquez with stamina issues. Trout is going to really expose Canelo on April 20th, and in doing he’s going to ruin Canelo and Golden Boy’s pay-per-view dreams.
Canelo is being groomed to be a megastar by Golden Boy, and that’s why Golden Boy has been so careful in protecting their Golden Goose. They didn’t want him to get beaten before he started making the Mayweather-like PPV money. They want turn him into a crossover star similar to Oscar De La Hoya, but the problem is he’s probably not even the 3rd best fighter in the junior middleweight division.
Canelo isn’t like Mayweather, who is clearly the best fighter at 147. Canelo is someone that is good, but not good enough to beat the likes of Trout, and we’re going to see that on April 20th. This will be a good lesson for why fighters should let their promoters match them up with the people they want because they know their fighters limitations.
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