By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez is hoping that he can fight four times in 2021 by battling in February, May, September, and December if possible. Dan Rafael is reporting the news of Canelo hoping to fight four times this year.
Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs) still wants to unify the 168-lb division this year against Billy Joe Saunders in May and Caleb Plant in September.
We don’t know who Canelo will fight in December if he’s able to squeeze in a fourth fight this year. If you were to put it to a vote, the boxing public would want him to fight Gennadiy Golovkin, David Benavidez, or Jermall Charlo.
But if you ask me who I think Canelo will be fighting in December, I see him selecting a soft target in Jaime Munguia. I hope I’m wrong, but after watching how Canelo has been carefully choosing his opposition since 2018, he’s likely to go soft and face Munguia and pick up a guaranteed win.
For the superstar to fight that many times, he’ll need to stay injury-free and win all of his first three contests.
Beating WBO super middleweight champion Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) and IBF champion Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) shouldn’t be a problem, as those guys are limited fighters and not considered to be among the elites in the division.
In other words, Saunders and Plant are what would call ‘Belt-holders,’ and they’re not a threat to Canelo or David Benavidez. With that said, Canelo could suffer a cut or some other type of injury that will upset his goal of fighting four times in 2021.
It’s good that Canelo is staying busy, but the fans would prefer that he take on much better opposition than Saunders, Callum Smith, and Caleb Plant.
You can’t exactly call them cherry-picks, as they’re technically world champions, but they’re not talented fighters that are a threat to beat Canelo.
. They fit the category of being ‘safe fights’ for Canelo. The guys that are a massive threat to beat Canelo are these fighters:
- David Benavidez
- Jermall Charlo
- Dimitry Bivol
- Artur Beterbiev
- Joe Smith Jr
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Demetrius Andrade
It’s unclear why Canelo isn’t fighting any of those fighters, but it’s pretty obvious that he’s avoiding them for a reason.
The casual boxing fans and the cheerleaders for Canelo are more than happy seeing him stick to his superficial goal of unifying the 168-lb division against belt-holders Saunders and Plant.
For fans who have their eyes open and understand what Canelo is doing, they want to see him face better opposition. Picking out a division with weak champions to become the undisputed champion is Canelo’s being an opportunist.
If Canelo were to try and become the undisputed champion at 160 or 175, that would be something else. He would need to beat guys that would have an excellent chance of defeating him.
If you know anything about the sport, you’ll realize that what Canelo is doing in unifying the 168-lb division would be done quickly by David Benavidez, Edgar Berlanga, Charlo, Andrade, Bivol, and GGG.
That’s why it’s hard to give Canelo any credit for what he’s attempting to do because he picked a division that has paper champions holding the belts.
Saunders and Plant were maneuvered into the position to win belts. They didn’t beat Benavidez, Charlo, or Berlanga to become champions.
The fans would respect Canelo taking a risk with his career instead of continuing to hand-pick guys that he has a better than average chance of beating at 168.
In other Canelo news, he picked up his promoter license for his Canelo Promotions on Tuesday from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. He’ll now be able to promote his own shows in Nevada.
“Canelo Promotions won’t put on bouts every weekend, but it will be the promoter of Canelo fights — the very biggest fights in the world,” Gregory M. Smith, Alvarez’s attorney said to Dan Rafael.
“After the pandemic, Canelo Promotions looks forward to lighting up the Las Vegas strip and filling an arena, or maybe even a stadium, with thousands upon thousands of boxing fans.”