Hot off becoming only the sixth male boxer in history to unify a division on November the 6th, when he stopped Caleb Plant in the 11th round at Madison Square Garden to claim all the belts at Super Middleweight.
It was announced that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be moving up three weights to challenge Ilunga Makabu for the WBC Cruiserweight title.
Canelo will be bidding to win a world title at a fifth different weight class, after he moved up to light heavyweight to dethrone Sergey Kovalev also in the 11th round to win the IBF light heavyweight title.
Naturally, choosing Makabu is a good move for Canelo’s team and if he was to claim a title in a fifth weight class, looking at all the cruiserweight champions, no disrespect, but he would be the easiest option.
However, size does make a difference in many situations and boxing is definitely one of them. It’s most likely that although Canelo will bulk up in size, he will still be giving away about 30 pounds to his opponent.
Though he eventually stopped Plant, he did have his fair share of troubles due to Plant’s size and he is a middleweight.
This was the same for when he moved up to fight Kovalev at light heavyweight, Kovalev was arguably winning the fight until Canelo dropped him in dramatic fashion in the 11th.
So, although you cannot question the ambition of Canelo and his team, you do have to wonder, even though he has unified the division, are there no more challenges out there at his weight?
I can fully understand he is chasing the belts, chasing history and boxing legacy, which after all, is what its all about. But is a third fight with Triple G not that appealing? I think if you are Canelo you would rather see the back of that fight seen as he came away with a draw and a win when in my opinion it should have been a loss and a draw.
Although the super middleweight division seems to have been conquered by Canelo, there are a few other fights such as the Billy Joe Saunders rematch, or maybe Daniel Jacobs or David Benavidez getting a shot.
Or you have the huge prospects of the Charlo brothers moving up to super middleweight to challenge Canelo. However, winning a title at a fifth weight class has much more legacy appeal to it then defending your unified super middleweight belts.
With that said, some may say the Charlo brothers are not really in the class of Canelo to be considered and maybe too small?
If you did say that, though you could have a case, the counter to that is, Canelo has fought many other fighters not in the class of the Charlo brothers, just look through this resume.
For me it really is about what side of the fence you sit on. As much as I feel it’s hard not to admire and praise Canelo for his illustrious career and what he has done in the sport to date.
Although many will agree and will be well behind this legacy chasing mission of moving through the weights, making history and collected belts.
There are always two sides of a coin and many will say they are not fooled by a significant padding mission of his record.
Plant is a credible champion, but many would not call him elite. Canelo has made a career out of destroying decent British boxers who were barely world widely known and not exactly top level boxers capable of making you think twice on the outcome of the fight.
However, you cannot deny his record reads as a whose who of modern day boxing and holds up against any other boxer today.
Rightly or wrongly, is that Canelo’s fault for being so good? To be fair, there were only a few fights Canelo had where you thought it could be a legitimate 50/50. Obviously, the Mayweather fight, the fights with triple G…
And if you were really pushing it maybe the Billy Joe Saunders? Other than that, the only other fights you may had a slight question mark over was the Kovalev, due to moving up.
All the others you were expecting a Canelo win and out of those only Lara gave him a real good fight, to the point where I thought it was a draw.
Nevertheless, as I stated there are always two sides of the coin and you cannot really blame Canelo and his team for chasing legacy/history.
You also cannot really blame Canelo or hold it against him for being that good?
He can only beat what’s there, and if they hold a belt, they are fair game, no matter the weight apparently.
I guess as good as Canelo is at what he does in the ring, his team are very good at what they do also, which is what makes the Canelo brand one of the most lucrative in combat sports, or even sports full stop.
However, regardless of the side of the fence you sit on, it’s hard not to be entertained and intrigued by what Canelo is doing in the ring.
It’s equally as hard not to consider him the no1 pound for pound fighter of today.
