When it comes to boxing superstars it's obvious that both Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao and Floyd “Money” Mayweather are by far the two biggest names. The third most popular fighter in the world however is quite likely to be Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, the 21 year old Mexican who currently holds the WBC Light Middleweight title and has an unbeaten record of 39-0-1 (29KO's). Whilst the young, red headed fighter is popular and a real emerging star of Mexican boxing, he has left some fans with real doubts.
“Canelo” turned professional aged just 15 and won his debut via 4th round TKO and in fact would pick up a number of KO's early in his career despite struggling against Miguel Vazquez (the current WBC Lightweight champion) and scoring a draw against Jorge Juarez. Between 2005 and 2008 Canelo would pick up a number of easy wins before stepping up his opposition and beating guys like Gabriel Martinez, Raul Pinzon and Larry Mosley.
It was maybe in 2010 that the major first questions were asked of Canelo as he beat up the much smaller Jose Miguel Cotto. It wasn't just that Canelo had effectively been matched with a guy several weights smaller than himself but he was also visibly shaken when Cotto caught him in the opening round and seemed to open up questions regarding Canelo's chin. Although Canelo would weather the storm and eventually stop Cotto it was a worry that he was even shaken.
In 2011 however bigger and more revealing questions have been asked about both Canelo's opponents and his out of the ring character. Whilst Canelo has won a world title, he did face the smaller Matthew Hatton to win the title, and in 2 of his 3 defences since he has faced smaller men (both Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron are natural Welterweights). It seems to be a bit of a pattern of Canelo's career, facing smaller men. To date his “best” wins have all been against smaller men (Vazquez, Cotto, Hatton, Gomez, Cintron) though it seems that it's not just in the ring that he likes to pick on the little man.
If stories are to be believed then Alvarez, a man who fights at 154lbs beat up the much smaller Ulises “Archie” Solis (who fights at 108lbs) due to Solis getting close to Canelo's ex girlfriend. This resulted in Solis suffering a broken jaw (broken in 3 places), losing several teeth and having bruises. Whilst this case does seem to be heading towards court Canelo has denied the attack (pointing the finger at one of his brothers), if found to be guilty the long term damage to Canelo's career may be massively damaging. The worrying thing about the story though is that WBC president Jose Sulaiman is quoted as saying “We at the WBC will pay the expenses on the damages that Ulises ‘Archie’ Solís has received not knowing who caused these damages”, a bit strange that the WBC would offer to pay Solis' damages regardless of whether they knew who caused it or not. If the WBC are making this payment, do they maybe know something that Saul Alvarez isn't telling us?
Whilst Canelo has the world at his feet, he may end up being one of the fighters who becomes a true “bad boy” of the sport, or gets a reputation as either a hot head (something we've seen from him in a number of fights) or a man who will only fight smaller men. Until Canelo faces a true threat (and there is a number of them out there) such as Carlos Molina, Erislandy Lara, Lukas Konecny, James Kirkland or even Javier Maciel there has to be doubts about his ability to fight someone who isn't smaller.
Is Canelo a fraud? It's hard to say either way, though it's obvious that he's yet to really face a solid threat his own size. Whilst I'd lean towards him being over-rated it's hard to say just how long he will remain at the top. If he continues to face relative nobodies and smaller men he could easily remain at the top until he grows grey and WBC president Jose Sulaiman passes away due to old age. If he however fights the best fighters out there I'll be honest, I don't see his reign lasting long at all.
“Canelo” turned professional aged just 15 and won his debut via 4th round TKO and in fact would pick up a number of KO's early in his career despite struggling against Miguel Vazquez (the current WBC Lightweight champion) and scoring a draw against Jorge Juarez. Between 2005 and 2008 Canelo would pick up a number of easy wins before stepping up his opposition and beating guys like Gabriel Martinez, Raul Pinzon and Larry Mosley.
It was maybe in 2010 that the major first questions were asked of Canelo as he beat up the much smaller Jose Miguel Cotto. It wasn't just that Canelo had effectively been matched with a guy several weights smaller than himself but he was also visibly shaken when Cotto caught him in the opening round and seemed to open up questions regarding Canelo's chin. Although Canelo would weather the storm and eventually stop Cotto it was a worry that he was even shaken.
In 2011 however bigger and more revealing questions have been asked about both Canelo's opponents and his out of the ring character. Whilst Canelo has won a world title, he did face the smaller Matthew Hatton to win the title, and in 2 of his 3 defences since he has faced smaller men (both Alfonso Gomez and Kermit Cintron are natural Welterweights). It seems to be a bit of a pattern of Canelo's career, facing smaller men. To date his “best” wins have all been against smaller men (Vazquez, Cotto, Hatton, Gomez, Cintron) though it seems that it's not just in the ring that he likes to pick on the little man.
If stories are to be believed then Alvarez, a man who fights at 154lbs beat up the much smaller Ulises “Archie” Solis (who fights at 108lbs) due to Solis getting close to Canelo's ex girlfriend. This resulted in Solis suffering a broken jaw (broken in 3 places), losing several teeth and having bruises. Whilst this case does seem to be heading towards court Canelo has denied the attack (pointing the finger at one of his brothers), if found to be guilty the long term damage to Canelo's career may be massively damaging. The worrying thing about the story though is that WBC president Jose Sulaiman is quoted as saying “We at the WBC will pay the expenses on the damages that Ulises ‘Archie’ Solís has received not knowing who caused these damages”, a bit strange that the WBC would offer to pay Solis' damages regardless of whether they knew who caused it or not. If the WBC are making this payment, do they maybe know something that Saul Alvarez isn't telling us?
Whilst Canelo has the world at his feet, he may end up being one of the fighters who becomes a true “bad boy” of the sport, or gets a reputation as either a hot head (something we've seen from him in a number of fights) or a man who will only fight smaller men. Until Canelo faces a true threat (and there is a number of them out there) such as Carlos Molina, Erislandy Lara, Lukas Konecny, James Kirkland or even Javier Maciel there has to be doubts about his ability to fight someone who isn't smaller.
Is Canelo a fraud? It's hard to say either way, though it's obvious that he's yet to really face a solid threat his own size. Whilst I'd lean towards him being over-rated it's hard to say just how long he will remain at the top. If he continues to face relative nobodies and smaller men he could easily remain at the top until he grows grey and WBC president Jose Sulaiman passes away due to old age. If he however fights the best fighters out there I'll be honest, I don't see his reign lasting long at all.
