Mayweather vs Canelo has finally been made, a move that has delighted boxing fans around the globe. Doran’s Boxing Blog takes a look
By Niall Doran
Sometimes sport can produce great days and today is one I believe for the sport of boxing. Turned on the internet about 9 am Irish time to the news that the mega fight the boxing world has been clamoring for a while now between Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez had officially been announced at the MGM Grand in Vegas for Sept 14th. Only one word I can think of to describe today’s news is – epic.
In recent years when we the boxing fans have been robbed of certain fights (most notably Mayweather vs Pacquiao) now we have a fight that we truly want, a fight where we might actually see Floyd Mayweather significantly tested against a much younger, stronger and also undefeated fighter in Canelo Alvarez.
The fight reportedly is at 152lbs so not much of a catch weight in terms of forcing Canelo into a disadvantage to be honest. It’s only 2lbs extra he has to lose and lets be honest he’s a very young guy with loads of time to prepare, so it really should not be used as an excuse by anybody should he lose.
Going into the fight at this early stage you would obviously have to favour the far more experienced and accomplished Mayweather. However in Canelo’s last fight against Austin Trout I was very impressed with the way he seemed to show more head movement and defensive skills than he had done in his previous fights. This showed me that he is very much a young man who is keen on always learning and improving, and against Mayweather he will need every bit of his skills to be in with a chance of winning.
Stylistically looking at the fight I see it being a bit of a chess match. A lot of people will say that Canelo may be the first guy who could have the power to take Floyd out but then again how many times have we heard that before? I think Mayweather and his team have made an intelligent and calculated move in choosing to fight Alvarez at this still relatively early stage of his career. As let’s face it Canelo is only 22 years old and is going to get much better over the next few years. Floyd at 36 realistically is not going to improve much more and fighting Canelo at this stage before he get’s any better certainly makes sense to me.
Having said that Canelo’s size and strength is something Mayweather is certainly going to have to be careful with and the early rounds no doubt will be a tentative affair with both pugilists fighting for position before they start moving up through the gears.
One thing that maybe can be leveled at Canelo sometimes is that he tires going into the late rounds, and if he does that against Mayweather he’s in big trouble. He put’s on huge amounts of weight after the weigh in and reportedly sometimes can re-hydrate up to as much as 172lbs. I think this would be a bad ploy against Mayweather as he is going to need every bit of stamina he can muster up. Unless of course he just goes for broke and try’s to blast Mayweather out of there in the first 5 rounds, which although might sound a little crazy, could be his best chance of winning.
One thing is for sure this fight is one that will transcend boxing and bring the sport back to the attention of casual sports fans on Mexican Independence weekend. Hats off to both fighters and Showtime for getting this fight made relatively quick. Now we can all enjoy the build up and promotion to this mega fight over the next few months!
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