By Dan Ambrose: Since he vacated his WBC middleweight title a year ago to seemingly avoid a fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) has been raked over the coals by boxing fans, who view him as being afraid of taking the fight. Canelo chose to address those critics this week, saying the he fights for pride to represent his country of Mexico.
Canelo isn’t fighting Golovkin next on May 6. He’s facing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., a fighter that was at one time a world champion 5 years ago, but who now looks like a shell of his former self. Canelo has received boatloads of negative feedback from boxing fans for his choice to fight Chavez Jr. rather than Golovkin. The fans see the fight as another example of Canelo facing a beatable fighter to pad his record with instead of taking a risky fight against Golovkin.
There have been a lot of comments directed towards me and my character. I fight for pride to represent my country. – @Canelo #CaneloChavezJr pic.twitter.com/j2pDUCIl9u
— GoldenBoyPromotions (@GoldenBoyBoxing) March 28, 2017
The fans don’t seem to understand why Canelo chooses to fight Chavez Jr. instead of Golovkin. Chavez Jr. is not a world champion at this point, and he would likely lose to all of the current champions in his own division.
It would be one thing for Canelo to ignore the boxing fans the way he has if they were merely suggesting that he face an undeserving contender or someone from a division far above him like at light heavyweight, but that’s not the case in this instant. The fans want Canelo to fight someone from his own division, who holds the IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles in Golovkin. The fans want to see Caneo prove that he deserves to be seen as the best fighter in boxing.
Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions like to point out that he’s the No.1 pay-per-view draw in boxing, and they’re probably correct. Canelo appears to be the top draw on the PPV market in the U.S. But when you’re viewed as the top guy in PPV, the fans expect you to fight the best. Canelo’s recent past opponents are not the best: Liam Smith, Amir Khan, James Kirkland, Miguel Cotto, and Alfredo Angulo. Canelo’s next opponent Chavez Jr. is not the best either. He’s a fighter that is trying to find his way back to the top after 5 years of facing guys like Brian Vera, Marcos Reyes, Dominik Britsch and Andrzej Fonfara.
Facing Chavez Jr. right now gives the impression to some boxing fans that Canelo is just thinking about money rather than the sport, because he’s not even facing the best fighter in the super middleweight division. Chavez Jr. is just a contender at 168, and it’s quite possible that he’ll never win another world title again. The fans might have given Canelo a pass if he had chosen to fight WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez or IBF champion James DeGale, because at least those guys are world champions.