By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Andre Rozier thinks Canelo Alvarez would beat IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev, and knock him out in the process. Rozier feels that Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) would defeat all the 175-lb champions right now, and he believes he should have stayed in that weight class after knocking out WBO champion Sergey Kovalev last November.
Boxing fans wanted Canelo to stay at 175 long enough for him to prove that he’s #1 by taking on Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs), but he vacated the belt and moved back down to 168. Canelo is expected to take on WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in June, if the fight postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus.
Canelo chose Kovalev over Beterbiev to fight
A lot of boxing fans think Canelo wanted no part of Beterbiev, which is why he elected the past his prime 36-year-old Kovalev. Although Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso told the media that he felt that Kovalev was better than Beterbiev, the fans don’t agree. Beterbiev was coming off of a huge knockout win over Oleksandr Gvozdyk last October before Canelo took on Kovalev.
In contrast, Kovalev had struggled mightily to defeated the inexperienced Anthony Yarde in his previous fight. If you can compare what Beterbiev achieved in beating Gvozdyk to what Kovalev did in barely getting past the green Yarde, there’s no way of putting them on the same scale. Beterbiev’s win over Gvozdyk was world’s better than Kovalev’s victory over Yarde.
Canelo would knockout Beterbiev
Me myself, I don’t think Canelo is coming back to 160,” said Rozier to Fighthub. “He looked so comfortable at 175. I’d be like, ‘I’m not going back there. I don’t have to struggle.’ I honestly think he’d beat all the champions at 175. I think he’ll knock him out,” said Rozier when asked if Canelo could beat Artur Beterbiev.
“Beterbiev isn’t that much bigger than he is,” said Rozier about Canelo. “I think he could get him. I’m a fan of his [Canelo] now. And I really am,” said Rozier.
It’s difficult to agree with what Rozier says about his belief in Canelo beating Beterbiev. Canelo looked like he was close to being knocked out in the 8th round by Kovalev, and that was the only round in which Sergey fought hard.
In the rest of the fight, it looked like Kovalev was fighting one-quarter power. There was something wrong with Kovalev that night that is hard to nail down. Whether Kovalev was weight drained or overworked from consecutive hard training camps is unclear. Whatever it was afflicted Kovalev, it left him just a shell of the fighter he was in his prime.
It took Canelo 10 rounds to knock Kovalev out, and that tells you a lot about the Mexican star’s lack of power for the division. Had that been Beterbiev fighting Kovalev, it’s likely that the fight would have been over in one or to rounds Kovalev looked like a weak punching bag against Canelo, and he would have been easy prey for Beterbiev.
Andre Ward: Canelo would NEVER fight Beterbiev
“Canelo better leave Beterbiev alone,” said Andre Ward. “That’s not a calculated risk. That’s just stupid,” said Ward to Fighthype is saying that Canelo would be taking a stupid risk if he fought Beterbiev. “He’d never fight Beterbiev,” Ward said to ESPN’s First Take of Canelo.
It looks like Canelo listened to Ward’s advice in leaving Beterbiev alone, considering the speed with which he vacated his WBO light heavyweight title. Canelo treated the WBO 175-lb title like it was a hot potato. He couldn’t get rid of the title fast enough.
Canelo wouldn’t take so much criticism if his next fight was supposed to be a good fighter like David Benavidez, Caleb Plant, Callum Smith, Gennadiy Golovkin on Jermall Charlo. But for Canelo to be taking on WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders, that looks like a weak move on his part. Saunders isn’t rated at #1, #2 or even #3 at 168. He’s more like #4, and maybe even not that hight. These super middleweights have to be viewed as better than Saunders:
- Callum Smith
- Caleb Plant
- David Benavidez
- Daniel Jacobs
Rozier surprised by how Kovalev fought Canelo
“I thought Kovalev was actually going to get him, but I’m a big Canelo fan now. Canelo is the man,” said trainer Andre Rozier to Fighthub. “I don’t know what he was doing, and I was two seconds away from betting on Kovalev,” said Rozier when asked about the weak jabs that Sergey was throwing against Canelo.
“And I just saw him not attacking like Kovalev. I don’t know what was going on. It didn’t make sense but I give Canelo a lot of credit. He’s the man. I agree. I would love for it to happen. I’m a fan of Canelo but I’m an even bigger fan of my fighter,” said Rozier when asked if he’d like to see Canelo fight Sergiy Derevyanchenko. “I would prepare him and he would give his all to win that fight,” said Rozier.
A lot of boxing fans were VERY surprised at how Kovalev looked against Canelo. To this day, a lot of people think Kovalev went easy on Canelo and didn’t try to hurt him on purpose. Whether that a move done out of gratitude on Kovalev’s part for having been given the fight with Canelo or some physical issue with him is unclear. Whatever it is, Kovalev wasn’t 100% against Canelo, and he looked like he wasn’t even 50%.
Golovkin vs. Dereyanchenko rematch interests Rozier
“Liste, we’d love that rematch,” said Rozier on Derevyanchenko wanting a rematch with Golovkin. “Gennady always cries about a rematch, but when it’s time for him to give a rematch, you never see anything happen. So it’s a bit disappointing.
“We’re watching what’s going on now. You have the [Jermall] Charlo fight, and you have [Matt] Korobov and Eubanks. There are some things that can happen. We’ll see,” said Rozier.
Gennadiy Golovkin should have done the right thing and given Sergiy Derevyanchenko a rematch to clear up the controversy of their fight last October, but he’s not doing that. By moving on, Golovkin has hurt his career because a lot of boxing fans think Derevyanchenko deserved the decision over him.
What Golovkin should have done is vacate the IBF middleweight title, and chosen to fight Derevyanchenko again to quiet the critics. He didn’t do that. Golovkin will be defending the IBF belt against his mandatory Kamil Szeremeta in June and then fighting Canelo in September. In other words, Golovkin isn’t taking any chances whatsoever that he could get beaten before facing Canelo in their trilogy fight.
