2015 Canelo Alvarez: Put up or shut up

By Boxing News - 09/30/2014 - Comments

canelo76By Jermill Pennington: Luke 12:48 -“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more”. This articles intention is to be cut, dry and straight to the point.

For Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-31ko) 2015 is the year that the training wheels come off and be held to the same standard of every other fighter. I’m hard pressed to think of a fighter in recent memory who has been given so much so soon.

I happen to be the old school type who thinks everyone should earn things the hard way. However like the scripture above states, to whom much is given, much is required.

At this point of Canelo career he’s entering the part where the “required” is now going to start being asked for. In 2013 Alvarez lost a decisive majority decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. The narrative after the fight was “no shame in losing to the best fighter in the world, he’s still young”. I for one did not share the same feeling about Canelo after the fight. I felt that his showing was so sub-par that I would go as far as to question the mental fortitude of Alvarez. As a fighter he stands on the same pedestal as the elite, but didn’t perform as such. I wondered why he got a wash as far as being criticized for losing so badly but we move on. Fast forward through the Frankenstein like Alfredo Angulo fight to July 12th showdown vs. Erislandy Lara (19-1-2). Here again Canelo was matched with another top tier fighter and the conclusion was less than impressive. It wouldn’t be going out on a limb to say Lara lost that fight more than Canelo won it. Lara clearly the better tactical fighter did himself a disservice by being on his bike too much even for fans that see using the ring as a part of ring generalship. Though Canelo took the victory on body punching and aggression, fans were still left unsatisfied with his performance. Canelo was out boxed and seemed to be unable to adjust let alone cut off a ring. After the fight again, the narrative seemed to pacify Canelo’s sub-par performance though clearly being outclassed in the ring. “This isn’t a track meet, Lara deserves nothing”

Until now Canelo has gotten by with his youth being factored in to everything. He has been given the stage to be great and Mexican fans have taken him in as the guy they want to carry the torch in years to come. Those things have been given, now what is required has to be earned. Canelo wants to fight on the Mexican holidays in 2015; however those are dates that Floyd Mayweather has been fighting on in recent memory. If you ask me a date has nothing to do with whether a fighter will be successful as far a pay per views go. What makes people want to pay to view you is excellence that we don’t see every day. If we go back as far as Mike Tyson and take a look at fighters who transcended the sport in one way or another it has never been about dates. What has always gotten the public’s attention is rare excellence. From Tyson to Chavez, Trinidad to Oscar, now Floyd and Manny, what made them stars was their extraordinary excellence.

What those fighters did that Canelo has yet to do is dominate elite comp. How many of us want to pay to see a fight and the decision be controversial. You either want to see a good action packed fight, or see the man who is unbeatable be dominating to reinforce his mystique. For Alvarez he’s received all that he will be given, in essence it’s payback time. Time to pay back all the fans who have invested their fandom in him. For Canelo 2015 is the year we start to tell the story, time to put up or shut up.



Comments are closed.