By Dan Ambrose: In a controversial move, ESPN has named WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) as the fighter of the year for 2015 for beating a ring rusty, inactive James Kirkland and defeating a much smaller WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-5, 32 KOs) in a catch-weight fight at 155lbs.
Canelo appeared to have a substantial weight advantage of the 35-year-old Cotto, and yet Canelo still barely won the fight.
In naming the 25-year-old Canelo as their ‘Fighter of the Year’ for 2015, ESPN picks him over arguably better fighters likes Gennady Golovkin and Roman Gonzalez, who appeared to have a better year than Canelo. Granted, Canelo brought in higher ratings for his fights, but he didn’t face anyone that was a dangerous fight for him.
You can’t call Kirkland as a tough fight for Canelo – or any middleweight – because Kirkland hadn’t fought since 2013, and he had gained a lot of weight while outside of the ring. Kirkland had to take a lot of weight off just to make 155lb catch-weight that Canelo wanted for the fight. To say that Kirkland was no longer a relevant fighter at the time that Canelo fought him is putting it lightly.
Golden Boy Promotions might as well have had Oscar De La Hoya come out of retirement to face Canelo, because it pretty much would have amounted to the same thing as the inactive Kirkland being selected for Canelo instead of someone that is young, talented, relevant, and busy with their careers like Jermall Charlo. I think Canelo would lose to a fighter like Jermall, which is probably why he wasn’t selected for the fight. Kirkland was a showcase fight for Canelo. In other words, it was a mismatch to make Canelo look good.
I can’t count Canelo’s win over Kirkland as being a meaningful win for Canelo due to Kirkland’s inactivity for the past four years. He’s rarely fought in the last 4 years of his career. I also can’t count that as a meaningful win because Kirkland isn’t a major player in the junior middleweight division.
Kirkland was a good fighter many years ago, but he’s clearly been replaced by the Charlo brothers, Demetrius Andrade and Eridlandy Lara. I had Canelo losing to Lara in 2014. I also had Canelo losing to Austin Trout in 2013. It just goes to show you that Canelo is very, very difficult to beat by a decision. Even Floyd Mayweather Jr. couldn’t get a unanimous decision over Canelo after dominating him in 2013. One of the judges scored the fight a draw, which was totally laughable.
“Canelo has been fighting for 10 years now, but he’s still only 25-years-old,” Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions said to ESPN.com. “I think the best is yet to come with him. He has grown as a fighter every year, learning from victories and his losses. Legacy is important to him, and when all is said and done, I know he will be remembered as one of the best in the sport.”
I expect Canelo to lose to Gennady Golovkin in 2016 if Canelo takes the fight. It still remains to be seen whether Canelo will agree to take the fight with Golovkin unless he gives the heavier Canelo a huge weight handicap by agreeing to fight him at 155lbs. If Canelo cares about his legacy, then he’ll choose not to use the catch-weight for the Golovkin fight and instead do what warriors have done for years by agreeing to fight at the full weight for the middleweight division at 160 instead of looking to get an advantage over Golovkin.
“It’s very important for me to fight the best because I want to cement my legacy,” Alvarez said to ESPN.com. “I came to this sport to fight the very best out there and that’s a goal of mine.”
Canelo looked to have a HUGE weight advantage in his fight against the tiny 5’7” Cotto in their fight last November. I wasn’t impressed with the way Canelo fought in that fight. He won the fight off of size alone rather than on talent. If Cotto had weighed the same amount as Canelo, I think he would have dominated the contest. As big as Canelo looked in that fight, he should have been fighting at light heavyweight against the likes of Adonis Stevenson and Sergey Kovalev.
Canelo looked like he was in the 180s at the minimum. Cotto blew it by having a rehydration clause in the contract with Canelo to make sure that he didn’t rehydrate over a certain amount. Cotto’s trainer Freddie Roach said he wished that they had used a rehydration limit for the fight because he thought that Canelo rehydrated 30 pounds from 155 into the 180s for the fight.
ESPN might as well given the Fighter of the Year award to WBA regular welterweight champion Keith Thurman for his empty wins over old timers Robert Guerrero and Luis Collazo, because those wins were about as meaningful as Canelo’s.
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