By Patrick McHugh: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez just captured the WBO junior middleweight title last Saturday night in defeating the obscure WBO 154lb belt holder Liam “Beefy” Smith in a fight that believe it or not was televised on HBO pay-per-view. It was an awful fight that few boxing fans wanted to see, and fewer likely wanted to pay for. But now that Canelo has the WBO 154lb title in his possession, he’s in the cross-hairs of the talented 2008 U.S Olympian and former WBO 154lb champion Demetrius (23-0, 16 KOs), who would like nothing better than to get the Golden Boy promoted Canelo inside the ring to pluck him clean in a Mayweather-esque fashion.
What was surprising – or not so surprising – was how Canelo immediately was talking about his fight last Saturday being his last one at 154. In other words, Canelo will be moving up in weight to start campaigning as a middleweight.
Some boxing fans see this as convenient for Canelo, because if he stays at 154, he’ll need to make a defense against the 6’1” Andrade, who can do everything that Mayweather can do, but with greater punching power and from the southpaw stance. Andrade would be a nightmare for Canelo. Andrade is a big junior middleweight, who easily could compete at the highest level at 160 if he wanted to. If Canelo stayed at 154, he would need to fight Andrade and that’s where we could see Canelo get beaten again.
Canelo said after the Liam Smith, “I fear no one,” and yet he appears to be moving away from one of his most dangerous opponents in years in Demetrius Andrade by moving up to 160, and we still don’t know if he’ll be fighting Gennady Golovkin next year.
You have to wonder if it was Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s idea for Canelo to move up immediately to 160 after beating Liam Smith or if it was Canelo’s. Either case, it seems awfully convenient that he’s moving up right at a time where he would need to prove himself against one of the best if not very best junior middleweight in the division in Andrade.
Given the choice between seeing Canelo quietly vacating his WBO 154lb title to move up to 160 to face Billy Joe Saunders or staying at 154 to defend the title against Demetrius Andrade, I’d take the Canelo-Andrade fight any day. Saunders is little more than the middleweight division’s version of Liam Smith from the way I see it. It’s going to be another mismatch. Saunders can’t punch, and he runs out of gas after six rounds.
Canelo will easily beat him. If Canelo wants to move up to 160 to get ready for an eventual fight against Golovkin, I’d rather he put off moving up in weight later on after he’s fought the 6’1” Andrade and proven that he can beat the true best and not a fake best. De La Hoya said Liam Smith was the best fighter in the 154lb division, and I bet a lot of boxing fans believed him, but he clearly wasn’t.
Andrade would likely take Smith out quicker than Canelo, but in a much more impressive fashion. Andrade has loads of talent, and he’s probably wasting his potential by staying at 154 rather than moving up in weight to put pressure on Canelo and to go after guys like Saunders and Daniel Jacobs.
Canelo suffered a fractured thumb last Saturday night in knocking the 28-year-old Liam Smith down three times before the fight was finally halted in the 9th. Smith was too hurt to get up after getting knocked down by a body shot from Canelo. The sad thing about this fight was that Canelo beat Smith one-handed for the most part after hurting his right hand earlier in the fight.
The fight hands that Canelo landed after the early rounds were the more clubbing variety rather than straight shots thrown with proper form. Smith still stood no chance even with Canelo using just his left hand. It said a lot about Smith the fact that he was still dominated. It also said something about the match-making for Canelo, because he shouldn’t have been wasting his time fighting a guy in Smith’s class at 154.
If Golden Boy really wanted to match Canelo against the best, then they should have put him in with Demetrius Andrade. If a title belt was important, then WBA champion Erislandy Lara, IBF belt holder Jermall Charlo and WBC champion Jermell Charlo would have welcomed the idea of fighting Canelo. At least in facing one of those guys, Canelo could have gotten a real fight out of it and he would have accomplished something.
Last Saturday’s Canelo-Smith fight was an embarrassing mismatch. Smith looked like a domestic level fighter who had no business being inside the ring with Canelo. It was just because Canelo was so good, it was mainly because Smith was so utterly bad. If you look at who Smith fought to capture the WBO 154lb title in John Thompson and who he defended it against twice before the Canelo fight, guys named Predrag Radosevic and Jimmy Kelly, it’s not surprising that the Canelo-Smith fight was such a mismatch. Smith didn’t belong out there with Canelo, and it was apparent from the first round.
With a lot of fans anticipating a fight between Canelo and Golovkin in 2017, the fans are likely purchasing Canelo’s mismatches on HBO pay-per-view just out of the excitement of seeing an eventual good match-up in 2017 between him and Triple G. Golden Boy can put Canelo in with guys like Amir Khan and Liam Smith on pay-per-view, and the fans are willing to pay to see these mismatches. I think it’s a bad business model though if you’re looking to attract and keep the casual boxing fans as loyal fans for Canelo. If you want the fans to be permanent, you’ve got to give them a good product by matching Canelo against guys that at least have the potential at beating him. This means instead of matching Canelo against Amir Khan, Liam Smith, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo, you put him in with Demetrius Andrade, Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Lara, Jermall Charlo, Julian “J-Rock” Williams and Jermell Charlo. If Canelo can’t beat them, then so be it. He doesn’t deserve to be a pay-per-view fighter and doesn’t rate being mentioned in the same breath as Golovkin. But if Canelo does beats them, then he’ll become a tremendous pay-per-view attraction as big if not bigger than Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. That’s the only thing stopping Canelo from becoming a huge star. It’s the match-making. He’s not facing the right guys. He’s facing yesterday’s fighters in many cases or paper champions.