Canelo Alvarez: New Mexican hope or hype job?

By Delroy Williams - 02/20/2014 - Comments

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By Delroy Williams: Its just over 2 weeks till former junior middleweight titlist Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KOs) faces up against the tough durable Mexican Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KOs) in what could be the fight that could ultimately prove whether he is indeed the real deal or just someone that has been hyped up to be the next great Mexican warrior.

Mexico has a rich history off boxing greats such as the late Vicente Saldivar 37-3-0 (26 KOs), Ruben Olivares 88-13-3 (78 KOs), Erik Morales 51-7-0 (35 KOs), Juan Manuel Marquez 52-5-1 (38 KOs), and arguably the greatest of them all Julio Cesar Chavez 107-6-2 (89 KOs) just to name a few. Mexicans have been crying out for the next great one to be unleashed on the world stage and they had been hoping that Julio Cesar Chavez juniorĀ  would have been that man to take over the throne but although he may have the talent, skills and chin to be up there he certainly doesn’t have the hunger, desire or work ethic to get to where he’s father got to.

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez already has racked up an impressive 42 victories, 30 by knockout and he is only 23 years old but when you breakdown that record there is still a lot of questions that need answering, the only names of note on that list of 42 victories are the likes of, lesser known less talented Hatton , Matthew Hatton 52-6-2 (17), a past he’s prime Carlos Baldomir 49-15-6 (15) Alfonso Gomez 22-5-2 (11) of reality tv show The Contender, Shane Mosley 47-9-1 (39) who’s best days were about 10 years prior and he’s best victory Austin Trout 26-2-0 (14) which was a lot closer than the judges had it.

A lot of critics may argue that he’s defeat to Floyd Mayweather 45-0-0 (26) was a good indicator to whether he is the real deal but there’s no shame in losing to Mayweather who took 2 years off fighting and still dominated another great Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in similar fashion to how he dealt with Canelo. The Mayweather fight came aboutĀ  because of the hype that has followed him since he’s early days of being a professional went into overdrive and after the Austin Trout win the clamor for that fight was immense. The Mayweather fight probably came too early for Canelo but on March 8th we will have a better idea if he is as good as the Mexican fans and the average boxing fan hopes he is as he will be facing a game Alfredo Angulo who will certainly provide a real test for the young Mexican.



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