By Jimmy James: Casual fans like to dig into the past and point out how Demetrius Andrade got exposed by Vanes Martirosyan when Martirosyan was highly skilled back in 2013. In fact, Matyrosian tied against Erislandy Lara and was undefeated before he faced Andrade.
He had fought the likes of Lara, unlike Caleb Plant, Callum Smith, Rocky Fielding, and Billy Joe Saunders, who never fought an opponent of that caliber before facing Canelo in their respective weight class.
Martirosyan was considered a dangerous fighter at 154lb, a fighter Canelo never fought! The version of Martirosyan that Gennady Golovkin fought, was an inactive fighter that jumped for the first time to the middleweight division to fight without much notice as a replacement of Canelo. When Andrade fought Martirosyan, Martirosyan gave him all he could handle, but Andrade still won the fight! This was back in 2013!
Other fans like to point out how Alante Fox knocked down Andrade to expose him. I remember how little known Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, and Tyson couldn’t recover dwindling around the ring like a tornado hit him. I also remember how little-known Corrie Sanders ran through Vladimir Klitschko via TKO in the second round and shocked the world. I also remember the day when Hasim Rahman, who beat Sanders, pummeled Lennox Lewis in the fifth round making it one of the biggest upsets of the nineties. Well, shit happens in boxing, and the good news is that Klitschko, Lewis, and Tyson are still considered legends of the sport. The other good news is that after Andrade suffered a knockdown, he got up and destroyed Fox, unlike the legends mentioned above, who got unlucky!
Others like to point out that Andrade was exposed against Jack Culcay. Andrade wanted to fight Erislandy Lara, but Lara was not interested in the fight. In fact, Lara was the final straw why Andrade left to middleweight, as Lara decided to fight Brian Castano, rejecting a fight against the American. It’s on the internet; search for it. Now Culcay was not a cherry-pick. The german came undefeated against Andrade, and Andrade, instead of boxing, decided to play Culcay’s game roughing him up in a phone booth brawl. The fight was ugly, but it is mainly because Andrade wanted to give the fans a fight instead of a boxing match. I didn’t like how he fought that night, but Andrade won the fight in a close decision after one year of inactivity. Perhaps, that fight he just had the wrong game plan, once again, shit happens.
However, since we like to reach back in time and look at fighters’ “original sins” in the ring, lets actually flip the coin and look at Canelo’s original sins. Canelo, in his fifth professional fight, tied a boxer called Jorge Juarez with a record of 3-5-0. I mean you want to talk about jokes, Andrade never tied anyone near that caliber when he was a young pro on his fifth fight! In fact, he was regarded as one of the best amateurs in the world around that time. Andrade fought American opposition of much better caliber as a runup pro, than the Tijuana uber eat drivers Canelo faced in his youth as a pro. It is much more difficult to start your career in the United States as a pro, than to start in Mexico as a pro, where the opposition is historically a few steps below in competition. Had Canelo started in the United States as a pro, he would have been crushed knowing he tied in Mexico with world renown phenom Juarez! He fought 27 Uber eat drivers back in Mexico. His career would have been much different in the United States fighting American talent on lower ranks.
Then in 2010, he fought Jose Miguel Cotto, the failed boxer brother of Miguel Cotto! Now Cotto on round two rocked Canelo, who looked like he took a shot of everclear on a Saturday night afterparty. You want to talk about Fox, let’s not forget about Cotto. Every time, ‘I say, Fox, you say C…!.’ See, Canelo got exposed by Cotto; he is no longer good, according to these casual fans! I will say one thing for sure, had Canelo fought Andrade coming up as a pro, he would have been annihilated from boxing history. Andrade was too good for him as a young pro, and that is why he avoided him his entire career until today. Andrade back in the early 2010’s would have made Canelo look ordinary. Andrade had olympic experience and had fought the likes of Keith Thurman in amateurs.
But let’s laugh even more at some of the opponents that Canelo faced. James Kirkland, who did he beat to be a high-quality opponent? No one! In fact, Kirkland was released after 2 years in prison back in 2010, which hurt his boxing career. Who is Alfredo Angulo? Nevermind! What about Alfonso Gomez, Kermit Cintron, Mathew Hatton, Ryan Rhodes and Lovemore Ndou? Who in the world are those guys, and who did they fight? Who did Liam Smith fight before facing Canelo Alvarez that made him greater than Fox, Culcay, Brian Rose, etc? No one! And we could play the casual game over and over again of “look at who he fought,” without much logic if that is how low boxing has fallen.
Now let’s name all the fighters Canelo set a nice rehydration clause in his fights: Daniel Jacobs, Liam Smith, Rocky Fielding, and Sergey Kovalev (that is the ones we know about!); Julio Cesar Chavez jr was inactive, and Canelo used a catchweight against him. Canelo had no problems making Amir Khan come up two weight classes; Khan is of course known for his iron dome chin! Josesito Lopez jumped one-or-two weight classes to fight Canelo. Canelo fought Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Sergey Kovalev on their way to the retirement home in Florida. We then have none less than world famous Avni Yildrim, known for his incredible technical abilities that surpass that of Maciej Sulecki. Rocky Fielding and Callum Smith, might have fought each other, but they are most definitely not proven, and Smith never unified against anyone; I am sorry, but they never fought anyone with a name and the opposite is Pinocchio talking!
The only credible wins for Canelo were against Caleb Plant, Daniel Jacobs, Austin Trout, Gennady Golovkin and Erislandy Lara. In the case of Lara, Canelo never gave him a rematch to settle the first fight, which many people thought he lost. Lets not even mention all the fighters Canelo ducked and keps ducking like Jermall Charlo, David Benavidez and Andrade. He also avoided a mandatory fight against Sergey Dereyenchenko, but it is up to you to pardon him since you pay to watch his fights. In all, if you are going to make fun of Andrade and point out his past sins, Canelo has much worse and controversial sins to account for. Lastly, Andrade was never caught cheating or taking an illegal substance to help his performance during a crucial fight which is the ultimate sin in boxing. So repeat one more time, ‘I say, Fox you say Cotto; I say Culcay you say Juarez and I say clean and you say dirty!’ Andrade will beat Canelo.