By Gerardo Granados: Congratulations to Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s), the undisputed pound for pound number one boxer in the World. Floyd executed a perfect fight plan in beaten WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) by a 12 round majority decision last night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Meanwhile, Canelo and his corner were clueless on what to do. Was it due the young lion inexperience? Maybe he was unable to execute the blue print. Maybe it was because of his lack of speed and mobility to match Floyd´s. Maybe he failed to adjust and just tried to do the very same thing round after round. Maybe his major weakness was his corner. Or could it be that Mayweather´s ring smarts were simply too much for him and his corner to handle.
I scored the bout 120-108 for Money, the judge that scored the bout a draw must have seen the fight from a different angle. Even on Mexican Press there were scoring of 120-108 in favor to the clear winner. To sum it up, Floyd controlled the pace of the fight, had better footwork and mobility, his speed allowed him not only to counter Alvarez but to pressure the fight forcing Canelo back he also connected most of his punches hitting accurate clean punches and also many hard punches (true those punches didn’t hurt Alvarez but were real solid ones).
As for defense, Mayweather was simply superior and his effective aggression was as good as his ring smarts. From round one to the third Floyd was cautious but from the fourth he had adjusted to take control and dominated the fight, and simply out boxed and out punch the young lion.
The only problem for Floyd is that he might have run out of contenders, because there are not great boxers left at the light welterweight – welter – super welter divisions that can be competitive against him; most of them are brawlers or boxer punchers but not on an elite level.
Alvarez had the physical tools to defeat Mayweather, but his ring smarts were not up to the task and his corner didn´t help much. There is no shame to lose to the pound for pound best but it is sad that Canelo wasn´t properly advice on how to adjust. One thing is to lose a competitive fight but to lose so clearly is really shocking.
Canelo is a young lion and his best days are yet to come but maybe he should consider making changes in his corner in order to have major success against talented boxers. If Alvarez had faced another type of opponent he might had have success connecting his power punches and could not had to move or throw four punches combinations and just stay in front of a non fast experienced elite boxer. It was a very disappointing performance by Saul Alvarez, so much that the betting odds were really close and no one could have imagined that the bout was going to be so one sided.
Do the readers believe that Canelo has reached his peak yet, or could it be possible for him to improve his boxing skills up to an elite level if he hires a new trainer?
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