By Dan Ambrose: Welterweight prospect Blair Cobbs didn’t have much good to say about Canelo Alvarez and Errol Spence Jr. this week. The unbeaten Cobbs says Canelo is only taking “easy fights” that lack worth.
Cobbs’s thoughts on the superstar Canelo have been echoed by many boxing fans, who feel he’s been exclusively cherry-picking for the last four years after his grueling rematch against Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018.
Courage-wise, that fight took something out of Canelo, leaving him as a risk-averse fighter ever since. Cobbs didn’t say who Canelo should be fighting that he feels would be tough fights for him, but it’s clear that these are the killers that he SHOULD be fighting:
- David Benavidez
- Gennady Golovkin
- Demetrius Andrade
- Artur Beterbiev
- Joe Smith Jr
- David Morrell Jr
- Jermall Charlo
- Jermell Charlo
- Tim Tszyu
As for IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence, Cobbs says he doesn’t have the “fighting spirit” any longer, and he feels he’s dealing with alcoholism at this point.
Cobbs (15-0-1, 10 KOs) is facing Alexis Rocha (18-0-1, 12 KOs) in a 10 round scheduled bout in the co-feature on the Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Michael McKinson on March 19th on DAZN at the USC Galen Center, Los Angeles.
“There are no thoughts on Canelo. Canelo is fighting easy fights that aren’t worth a damn thing, and it’s not worth my time,” said Blair Cobbs to Fighthype.
Canelo has seemingly retired from fighting elite-level opposition but failed to mention that to the boxing world, Eddie Hearn and DAZN.
You can argue the only reason Canelo is fighting WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) on May 7th is that the Russian fighter hasn’t looked good since his win over Joe Smith Jr. in 2019.
As for Canelo’s tentative trilogy match against Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th, he likely feels he’s now too old to put up a fight. Golovkin will turn 40 on April 8th and has only fought three times in the last four years.
Earlier in Golovkin’s career, he would fight three times in one year. My, how things have changed.
“It’s a good fight. I think Ugas is going to win,” said Cobb in predicting Yordenis Ugas to defeat Errol Spence Jr. in their welterweight unification fight on April 16th.
“When I look in Errol Spence’s eyes, I don’t see a fighter that has the true fighting spirit anymore. He’s defeated outside the ring. People need to understand that the real fight is outside the ring.
“Errol Spence had to face some demons outside of the ring with alcoholism and this and that and dealing with hurt and all these other things. So, we have to see what happens to him when he’s tested outside of the ring.
“All these young fighters, I’d love to see what happens to them tested outside of the ring because I’ve already been through the hellfire. I’m ready to go,” said Cobbs.
