Canelo Alvarez vs. Joshua Clottey expected to be announced today for December 6th on HBO

By Boxing News - 09/23/2014 - Comments

canelo136(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: A fight between former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) and former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey (38-4, 22 KOs) is expected to be announced today, according to Chris Mannix from Sports Illustrated.

The Canelo-Clottey fight is scheduled to take place on December 6th at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, USA. This is an interesting fight because Canelo had the options of fighting Demetrius Andrade, James Kirkland and Erislandy Lara, but he chose the soon to be 37-year-old Clottey.

It kind of makes you wonder about whether he was pulling everyone’s leg when he said he only fights the best. #3 WBA Clottey was a good fighter many years ago, but after his horrible performance in losing to Manny Pacquiao in their fight in 2010, Clottey has all but disappeared.

Clottey has fought just 3 times in the last 4 years. Last April, he defeated 39-year-old Anthony Mundine by a 12 round unanimous decision. That would have been a big deal if the win game 10 years ago when Mundine was in his prime of his career, Mundine had already been beaten by Daniel Geale and someone named Garth Wood in the last 4 years.

“Golden Boy will announce tomorrow Canelo Alvarez vs. Josh Clottey in December on HBO, per sources. Golden Boy-HBO reconciliation continues,” Chris Mannix said on his twitter. “Canelo-Clottey is a truly terrible fight. Borderline unwatchable and laughable that Clottey gets it. But it sets up Canelo-Cotto in May.

It is a really bad fight because Canelo could have chosen a more relevant fighter like Andrade, Lara or Kirkland. Clottey turns 37 next month, and he’s been out of the big picture for so long that he’s just a distant memory for a lot of hardcore boxing fans.

The young casual boxing fans have no idea who Clottey is, so this fight doesn’t resonate with them. It just looks like a case of Canelo playing it safe so that he doesn’t get beaten again. He dominated by Floyd Mayweather Jr last year in September, and then he was almost beaten by Lara last July. Many fans thought Canelo deserved to lose that fight because he was out-boxed by Lara.

”If indeed it is Clottey, he failed to let his hands go v Pacquiao,” said Kevin Iole from Yahoo Sports. ”What makes one think he’d change in a fight v Canelo?

Clottey will try hard for at least 4 rounds before tiring and then assuming his position against the ropes to cover up for the last 8 rounds like he did against Pacquiao in 2010. In that fight, Clottey just covered up behind his clam-shell guard for the full 12 rounds and barely made a fight of it. With a stationary target, Pacquiao threw over 1000 punches in the fight in a one-sided fight from start to finish.

It looks like Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions are playing it safe now after his questionable win over Lara. They obviously don’t want to miss out on the payday fight against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next year.

It’s hard to take Canelo seriously as boxing’s next #1 PPV star after Mayweather retires, because of match-making like this and because of how badly Canelo looked against Lara, Austin Trout and Mayweather.



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