By Prof Johny: While last Saturday ended up being a major letdown for everyone but the Vegas bookies with the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao clash in Las Vegas, Nevada, this coming Saturday on May 9th has a far better chance of being the all action fight we hoped we would get between Floyd and Manny.
Saul Canelo Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) will be fighting James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) at a catch-weight of 155 pounds in middleweight action at Minute Maid Park in Houston,Texas will be an exciting match-up that would have been an amazing undercard bout on the Mayweather-Pacquiao card. Unfortunately Canelo is with Golden Boy promotions who had zero interaction with the Mayweather fight card last Saturday night.
Breaking down the fight: Kirkland has had a year and half long layoff since his last fight in 2013, his ring rust, or lack their of will be crucial for him, as he has had some rough first rounds before and almost been knocked out.
Canelo is coming of off a 12 round split decision win over Erislandy Lara last July. Before that, Canelo had an impressive 10th round TKO of Alfredo Angulo in March of 2013, who he made mince meat out of.
Canelo will use his combination of power, aggression, size, and decent boxing ability to wear down and stop Kirkland mid to late in the fight, my personal prediction. Canelo is a very capable body puncher, and he seems dedicated in the past to keeping the body attack going.
Kirkland for his part will need to stay mobile, Canelo has always had problems when fighting highly mobile fighters, Floyd, Trout, Lara. Kirkland will need to do just enough moving to keep Canelo off balance and hence unable to load up on his power shots. If Kirkland can move, and tire Canelo out, he may have a chance of going the distance, but due to Canelo’s star power, and constant aggression, not to mention his thousands of fans in live attendance, Kirkland will not be getting any close decisions. Canelo has always tended to do extremely well in all action fights, Kirkland has been involved in many all action fights him self, with any luck we could end up with a Brandon Rios vs Mike Alvarado 1 & 2 which is a shame since it is taking place one week to late.
With any luck this Saturday will prove to be a very exciting night of boxing for any fans left after last Saturdays disappointment.
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