By Brian Webber: Canelo Alvarez believes he’s done more than enough in preparation to hold onto his four super middleweight titles this Saturday night against Jermell Charlo, who he’s thrown a bone to without the fighter ever having fought at 168.
Canelo’s surgically repaired left hand is finally 100%, and he expects to beat Jermell (35-1-1,19 KOs) without any problems and send him back to 154 with his second career loss and a learned that he needs to stay away from the super middleweight division.
If Canelo loses on Saturday, then a sign that he washed up because he should be able to beat Jermell, who lacks the size to compete with the monsters in the division, like David Benavidez & David Morrell Jr.
It’s a whole other kettle of fish compared to the small pond that Jermell has been fishing format 154, a division that void of talent.
The junior middleweight division is similar to the cruiserweight weight class, being barren of talented fighters, which has created the perfect environment for Jermell to thrive and carve out a tiny niche to become the undisputed champion.
Canelo says moment too much for Jermell
“Yeah,” said Canelo Alvarez to the media today when asked if he thinks the moment is starting to get to Jermell Charlo.
“I feel confident, I feel 100%, and that makes me feel happy, and it makes me feel confident. Crazy, that guy, and you think he knows boxing?F**k,” said Canelo when told that Teddy Atlas said that he’s the most overrated Mexican fighter in history.
“Now I know. I’m sorry to Caleb [Plant],” said Canelo about having called him a ‘mother f***ker in the past.
“I’m thinking in my mind that I fought against every style, every great fighter out there. So what does he mean that I haven’t been in the ring with a fighter like him,” said Canelo, reacting to Jermell saying that he’s never fought anyone like him before.
“You’ll see. It’s hard to tell, but you’ll see,” said Canelo when asked what difference will Jermell see on Saturday night.
Is Canelo one of the greats?
“You lost twice to GGG. The first time, the second time. I don’t care what you say, and you probably lost to Lara,” said Teddy Atlas to ProBox TV about Canelo. “You got dominated by Mayweather and Bivol. Do I need to go any further?
“You have four or five losses if we’re going to be fair about this. There’s no doubt about how influential he’s been, being the goose that laid the golden eggs, that he’s brought massive numbers to the pay-per-view, that he’s helped other fighters that are fighting him, like Ali did. If you fight him, you get paid more. Like Tyson did, and you fight him, and you get paid more.
“No, he did all those things, and I’ll tell you something else. No doubt that he’s improved. He got better over the years. He got better, but to put him at the top of the heap with the great tradition of Mexican fighters, the ones that I just mentioned, no, that’s that’s blasphemy.
“Is Canelo a great fighter? Absolutely. Is he an all-time great? It’s hard to say because he’s not done yet,” said Chris Algieri. You really can’t rank a guy until his career is truly over, but he’s going to be up there, he’s going to be talked about, and it’s not only because of all the titles but a lot of it’s the weight classes. His ability to move up. He’s beaten big names as well.
“Sure, he definitely has his losses. You mentioned the modern-day era; you mentioned Juan Marquez, who, honestly, at this point, I would write above Canelo as well, but you mentioned losses, Teddy.
“Marquez has seven losses. He got dominated by Mayweather as well, but it happened to Canelo when he was 22. There was a stretch there for Canelo. You got to tip your hat to him when he did that, and granted, not all of them were top guys, but he had it was during the pandemic.
“He had the Callum Smith, a super dangerous guy, and he made him look very ordinary. Then you had Yildirim, just to keep busy fight, but he did what he was supposed to do with a guy like that. Billy Joe Saunders, a huge fight. Billy Joe is a really tough guy to look
good against.
“No one’s really done it, and Canelo breaks his face and blasts him out of there, gets 80,000 people on their feet. I was in the room for that fight in Dallas. That was awesome, and Caleb Plant, a super capable guy and walks him down, beats him up, gets him out of there.
“That was another really impressive oppressive night, and it was a very impressive run, and then on the tail end of that, we’ve got three fights in a row that were just duds, right? We’ve got Bivol. He gets dominated, but Bivol, he never beats,” said Algieri.
Canelo needs a spectacular victory
“It’s one of those match-ups. GGG, he comes back, but he apparently injures his hand in that. But still, they both look like they phoned it in, and we’re collecting checks,” said Algieiri.
“Then he comes back, and he fights a very capable John Ryder, who no one looks good against, and he struggles at the end. He gets hit with more punches than you expect but still dominates. I think there’s a lot of harsh talk about Canelo, but yeah, it’s all about context yeah.
“Is he overrated? Is he the best of all time? No. Is he better than Chavez Sr? No. Is he better than these modern-day-era guys? We don’t know yet because a lot of a lot of Marquez’s greatness comes from that fourth Pacquiao fight.
“He ices his longtime rival face down and puts him away. That was the icing on the cake of a masterful career, and that really jumped him up. So you got to look at Canelo after he retires to really take in his career in his totality because something like that can happen.
“He can go out there and go ice Charlo, and you’re like, ‘Whoa,’ or he gets another, or he goes and beats [David] Benavidez. These are all hypotheticals, of course, but I think he still has a lot to do.
“So placing his greatness really can’t be done yet, and these people who are trying to throw him out there as ‘He’s this or he’s that,’ like you said, Teddy, that they’re fanatics.
“There’s always going to be those guys, which is good. You got a good fan base. There’s always always going to be haters. So that’s the nature of the game; that’s what boxing’s all about. That’s what being in the spotlight is all about, but yeah, I think we got to give Canelo his credit. He definitely is a great fighter,” said Algieri.
