By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum feels that WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) has very little chance of beating Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) on September 14th. Arum feels that the 22-year-old Canelo lacks the stamina, hand speed and experience to defeat the 36-year-old Mayweather.
Arum saw Canelo’s fight with Austin Trout last April and noticed how Canelo had gassed out in that fight and was there for the taking by Trout in their open scoring bout at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Arum feels that Trout would have won the fight had he been busier in the last half of the fight when Canelo was badly faded and throwing very little back.
Speaking with esnewsreporting.com, Arum said “Canelo doesn’t have the speed or the stamina to cope with Mayweather…the problem is Canelo, and a lot of young fighters, don’t have the stamina; they run out of gas. That’s what happened to him in the Austin Trout fight…I think Mayweather will decision or stop him.”
I agree with Arum here. Canelo doesn’t have the stamina. We saw that clearly in his controversial win over Trout where Canelo was gassed by the midway point of the fight; we saw that in Canelo gassing out against Matthew Hatton and Shane Mosley, both of which were 12 round fights. Canelo had to fight at a slow pace and he looked limited in both fights, like a smaller, less conditioned version of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
That’s who Canelo reminds me of with his fighting style and the fact that he tends to fight guys that are a lot lighter than him. Chavez Jr. fights a lot of guys who are lighter than him as well. However, Chavez Jr. has much better stamina than Canelo and he doesn’t fade in his fights like Canelo. I think Chavez Jr. is the better fighter but at a division above Canelo at 160.
When Canelo turns red-faced and tired by the 6th or 7th rounds against Mayweather, he’s going to be in a lot of trouble because Mayweather won’t back off and let Canelo fight at a slow pace so that he can breathers. Additionally, the fight won’t have open scoring, so even if there are a couple of judges that are giving Canelo every round like in the Trout fight, Canelo won’t see the scores and he won’t be able to back off and take more rest breaks. He won’t know the scoring in this fight and he’s going to be forced to fight hard and I think he’s not going to be capable of doing that without tiring out and getting dominated by Mayweather.
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