By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) is banking on his fight against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) as being a really intense fight on November 21st. That’s the kind of fight that Canelo needs for him to find success. He’s not going to do well in a fight where Cotto is using movement and boxing him all night long. Canelo doesn’t have the mobility, and he especially doesn’t have the stamina to chase Cotto around the ring for 12 rounds.
“I’m very happy to see what I have accomplished in the past 10 years,” Canelo said. “I’m very proud of what I’ve done so far. We still have a lot more to come, and we’re all ready for the future.”
Canelo is going to need to beat Cotto for him to be able to make something of his future. Canelo has already been exposed in his fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout. A loss to Cotto would be a real bitter blow to the red-haired Canelo’s career.
A defeat to Cotto would likely mean that Canelo would need to go back down to the 154lb division and hope that he can continue to make weight. I doubt that Canelo would even bother. I think he would choose to continue to fight at 155 for as long as he can. Once he can no longer make that weight, I see him fighting at 156 for as long as possible with it becoming his new catch-weight class.
“A lot of people tend to forget that he’s just 25-years-old,” De La Hoya said. He’s just starting. He’s just beginning. The next 10 years are going to be incredible. I can’t wait to be a part of history in the making. There’s no limit to where he can go, and to what he can accomplish. When you take a look at my career, when I 25-years-old, I wasn’t near up to par where he’s at. Manny Pacquiao, when he was 25, he was nowhere even close. Mayweather was not even close to where he’s [Canelo] at now at 25. So, I think he’s ahead of the ball game. He’s ahead of the curve. I think he can be bigger than all three of us. At this age, he’s on the right track. So me as a promoter, my job, my responsibility is to guide him; give him the choices where it’s going to take him to superstardom. He has to do his job in the ring obviously. I think we make a great team, and I think we’re going to accomplish our goals very soon.”
De La Hoya is wrong about Canelo being ahead of where Mayweather was when he was 25. Mayweather had been a world champion for 5 years by the time he was 25, and he had huge fights that he won without controversy against Diego Corrales, Carlos Hernandez, Emanuel Augustus and Jesus Chavez. Mayweather had also twice beaten Jose Luis Castillo. Mayweather had five big fights that he’d won by the time he was 25. Canelo has only had three important fights and he’s arguably lost all three of them.
“What I can say is that it’s going to be a very intense fight,” Canelo said. “I think the boxing fans are going to come out the winners.”
Comments are closed.