By Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) says he’s done his research on WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) by watching his fights, and he figures he knows enough to beat him when they face each other on April 20th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Canelo said to RingTV “He [Trout] knows to hold you. He’s a southpaw and he has a lot of tricks. But I’ve been working on those things…I’ve been ringside and seen him fight a few times, in person, so I know how to fight him.”
That sounds good that the 22-year-old figures he knows enough to beat the 27-year-old Trout, but like a lot of young fighter they don’t realize how much they don’t know until they’re put in the position where they’re forced to come to terms wither their lack of knowledge/skills.
Could we be on the verge of seeing Canelo experience that against Trout on April 20th? I think it’s a very good possibility. Whether you like him or not, Trout is simply the better athlete than Canelo. He’s taller, faster, and slicker, moves better, has the better stamina and defends better. The only things Canelo has going for him in this fight is his power and inside game.
Don’t get me wrong, those are great qualities to have going for you, but those are the wrong tools for this kind of fighter. It’s like someone needing to change the oil in their car, so they bring out a sledge hammer and chisel instead of a simple wrench, pan and new oil filter.
Canelo’s skills are great for certain types of opponents, the kind that just stand in front of him for 12 rounds, but against Trout his skills aren’t the right ones for the job.
I can only imagine what Canelo is going to try and do in order to nullify the things Trout will be doing in the ring on April 20th. Canelo will likely try and cut the ring off on Trout to force to fight. That’s probably not going to work because Canelo moves like he has two left feet when he’s forced to use his legs to do any kind of quick movement.
Canelo will probably throw left hooks, but that’ll be useless as well because it will require that Trout stand close enough for him to land his shots. Trout won’t be standing there like Canelo’s past poor opponents picked out for him by Golden Boy Promotions. So the left hook idea is a nonstarter for Canelo if that’s his plan for victory.
Canelo will likely continue to punch Trout when he grabs him in a clinch. I think that’s a given, but again the power that Canelo gets on his shots while being held will be minimal, and he won’t get the attention from the judges from those kinds of shots the way that Trout will by landing clean left hands and right hooks from the outside.
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