By Dan Ambrose: Former two division world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) has a fight this month on September 17 against WBO 154lb champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) that he should be focusing on because he could lose the match if he’s not on his A-game. Canelo says he wants to be seen as one of the top Mexican fighters of all time in boxing, and he feels that he’s slowly working his way to that area.
Canelo says that Mexican fighters take on everyone. Unfortunately, Canelo hasn’t yet gotten to that point in his career where he’s following that model. Canelo still hasn’t fought Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade, Jermell Charlo, Julian Williams and Jermall Charlo. There are a numer of very, very good fighters that Canelo still has not fought.
Canelo, 26, says that he’s known for leaving it all inside the ring in his matches, and he feels that his record shows that. Canelo hasn’t been involved with too many fights where he had to really dig deep against a guy his own size that was giving it to him. Many of the fights that Canelo has had were against fighters that appeared to be lighter than him in the weight department, and he was able to use his size to pummel them.
“I feel like I am making my way into that pantheon,” said Canelo. “Mexican fighters have a reputation of taking on everyone and leaving everything in the ring. If you look at my record and the way I fight, I am trying to follow that model.”
In looking at Canelo’s fights in the past, he really hasn’t fought anyone that had the size in terms of weight and punching power that could force Canelo to dig deep. If you look at his past fights, he’s been in with a lot of smaller fighters like Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Josesito Lopez and Amir Khan. Those guys didn’t have the size to force Canelo into a situation where he was “leaving everything in the ring.” Those fights were matches where Canelo had a significant size and/or power advantage over his opponents.
For Canelo to really say that he’s leaving it all in the ring, it suggests that he’s facing guys with equal size and punching power. It hasn’t been that way though. Canelo has had the advantage over his opponents in those areas with the match-making that’s been done for him. For Canelo to truly say that he’s leaving everything in the ring, he needs to start fighting guys that are close to the same size as him like Daniel Jacobs, Golovkin, Demetrius Andrade, Badou Jack, James DeGale, Gilberto Ramirez, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, Jermell Charlo, Chris Eubank Jr. and Jermall Charlo. Those are guys that are roughly the same weight as Canelo. If he would start fighting those guys, then the fans could see whether he’s really leaving it all inside the ring, but they’re not going to learn anything seeing Canelo fight lighter guys like Cotto, Khan and Mayweather. They’re also not going to learn anything from seeing Canelo fight older fighters like James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo.
“Fighting and beating Miguel Cotto…was among the biggest highlights of my boxing life,” said Canelo. “I have to keep working to be known as one of the all-time greats of Mexican boxing. That is a major motivation for me.”
At this point, I think Canelo needs to change the entire way that he’s being matched by his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions if he wants to be among the all-time greats of Mexican boxing when he finishes his career. Fighting guys like Liam Smith, Khan and the much smaller Cotto isn’t going to make Canelo seen as a great fighter in my view. I think it makes Canelo appear to be cherry-picking beatable opponents that are smaller than him weight-wise, and not as powerful. Cotto is a good little 5’7” fighter, but he clearly didn’t belong in the ring with a guy Canelo’s size on the night of their fight. The fighters looked like they were from two different weight classes entirely. I like Cotto a lot as a fighter, but he was never going to beat someone Canelo’s size in that fight. Let’s be serious. Cotto is a good fighter, but he can’t beat someone with a huge weight advantage over him.
Cotto is 35-years-old, and not a young 35. He’s got a lot of mileage on him. So for Canelo to be getting all excited about beating a small, older guy like Cotto, it makes you wonder what he looks for in his opponents. If you’re going to be matched against smaller guys, then where is the victory in beating them? If the idea is to be seen as an all-time great when you’re boxing career is over, shouldn’t you then be fighting guys your own size like Golovkin, James DeGale, Badou Jack, Gilberto Ramirez, the Charlo brothers, Andrade and Julian Williams?
Canelo is expected to fight in December against one of the following fighters: Willie Monroe Jr., Gabriel Rosado or Billy Joe Saunders. Those three are also going to be in the running for Canelo’s fight in May of 2017. Rosado and Monroe Jr. are fringe contenders in the middleweight divisions. In other words, they’re not high quality fighters that are ranked high in the division. They’re lower ranked guys. Saunders, the WBO middleweight belt holder, is seen by many boxing fans to be a paper champion at 160. It’s unknown why Canelo would want to fight any of those guys. If one of his goals in his career is to be seen as one of the all-time Mexican greats, then shouldn’t he be looking to fight the very best?
I can understand why Canelo wouldn’t want to fight Golovkin right at this moment, but he could at least look to fight guys that are perceived to be better than Rosado, Monroe Jr. and Saunders. I think someone like Daniel Jacobs or Eubank Jr. would be good opponents. Canelo could pull some of the junior middleweights up to the middleweight division to fight him. I’m sure that Andrade, Julian Williams, and the Charlo brothers would jump at the chance to fight Canelo if the fight were offered to them at middleweight.