Beristain doubts Canelo will solve Mayweather’s defense

By Boxing News - 06/17/2013 - Comments

canelo212By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Nacho Beristain is giving WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) a decent chance of beating the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) in their fight on September 14th, but Beristain still doubts whether the red-haired Mexican fighter will be able to solve Mayweather’s defense.

Beristain said to Foxsportsla.com “[Canelo has] a great opportunity to earn a victory and show the world, not only for Mexico, but I still doubt that he will be able to solve Mayweather’s defensive style.”

I think I would have to agree with Beristain on this. Mayweather is so hard to hit, and he’s especially hard to hit against the flat-footed style of fighters like Canelo. He’s a lot like Juan Manuel Marquez with his fighting style, and that’s a fighter that Mayweather picked apart in beating by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2009. Canelo is bigger and slower than the Marquez that Mayweather fought in 2009, and so I think it could be even easier for Mayweather in this fight.

Marquez is 5’7″, while Canelo is just about 5’9″, but he doesn’t move as well as Marquez and he loads up with everything he throws. Marquez had a lot more going for him when he fought Mayweather in 2009 than what Canelo has. The only thing I can see that Canelo has in this fight is his weight advantage and power, which derives from his weight advantage.

Anytime you get a 172 lb. fighter taking on a natural 146 pounder like Mayweather, then of course the bigger guy is going to have a weight advantage. If you took a 172 lb. Adonis Stevenson and put him in with Mayweather, it would be Stevenson that would have the power advantage. But Stevenson isn’t melting down to 154 to fight welterweights either. He’s fighting the light heavyweight division. That would look bad if he was fighting welterweights as well.



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