By Mr. Pennington: With the biggest fight in years less than three weeks away, I think we as fans can get a better sense of what both fighters are focusing on. With all the talk about weight surrounding Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, I can see how it can be somewhat of a concern in camp. Canelo addressed the issue by saying he losing more than five pounds per day. Now I’m no nutritionist, but that sounds like a lot of weight to be losing per day.
I assume Canelo is working pretty hard, as he should for a fight of this magnitude. But my concern derives from a place of curiosity. Yesterday I was at my Nephews Pop Warner football practice; they have their first scrimmage coming up this Thursday night. They only had an hour to practice so I figured they would be working on execution in preparation for the game. Like any other football practice, you do some stretching and maybe some light conditioning.
Practiced started with push -ups, then sit ups, two sets of 25 each while wearing pads. For those who have played the sport, that’s a normal practice. My concern was why all the conditioning when you have a game to play on Thursday. After nearly using 30 minutes of the hour, practice finally began, and low and behold, the execution was horrific.
My brother who’s not a sports guy at all wondered why I showed such disdain with how the practice was going. I said “the game is about execution, not about being strong”, that said it seems that Canelo is doing a lot of conditioning when he should be working on execution. The analogy applies, no one’s going to be much faster, stronger, or have much more stamina in two weeks time, so why not work on execution. Alvarez has an immense amount of pressure on his shoulders, not only to beat to great Floyd Mayweather, but to also uphold the great fighting tradition of Mexico. There are many Mexican champions in the sport today, but none have been given the key to the hearts of adoring Mexican fans.
Canelo has been given the path to be great, the expectation is a tall order that is not fit for every man. When you think about it, Mayweather fights under far less pressure, sure he has the pressure to remain undefeated, but that about it. He doesn’t fight for the pride of a people, he doesn’t fight for tradition, hell he doesn’t even have to carry a flag, all he has to fight for is himself. Keep in mind that not every Mexican fighter is given the key, Mexican fans are choosy on who they let into their hearts to carry the torch. Victor Ortiz didn’t have this blessing, or Burden some may call it. Neither did Robert Guerrero, it’s clear that fans are astute enough to know who’s is the real deal, and who’s not.
The only stick of measure I have for the mind of a 23 year old is myself, and quite frankly I didn’t have the gumption at that age to baby sit someone’s cat, let alone do anything of significance. Remember these athletes aren’t robots; they have T.V’s and computers like everyone else. They hear the talk, they hear the critiques, and I’m sure Canelo hears Oscar going around predicting a knock out, that can only add to the pressure. In my estimation that is a lot for the average 23 year old to handle, but maybe Canelo not average right? In the other corner we have the Mayweather camp, and it seems to be business as usual. No overzealous promoter telling him how to win, no issues with weight, just one focus, the fight itself. Won’t be the biggest fight of his career, won’t have to formulate a new way of fighting, just work on being sharp, perfect timing and distance, in other words “no worries”. No one has ever said it better than Freddie Roach himself “while they lose weight, we get ready to fight”, September 14th is just around the corner and I can’t wait!
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