By Norm Frauenheim –
Canelo Alvarez has always had a testy relationship with critics. The super-middleweight champion, who has a mean counter in the ring, is quick to angrily counter anyone who delivers a pointed question at a news conference.
But criticism can be an ally. It’s beginning to sound as if Canelo has realized that much in the face of questions about an evident decline in his rich career.
Yes, he hasn’t been at his best, he said in Beverly Hills CA Wednesday in the second coast-to-coast news conference this week.
“We’ll see if it’s true that I’ve lost a step,’’ Canelo said twenty-four hours after a newser in New York. “We’ll see. I understand what the people said, and I agree.
“I didn’t look my best in my last two fights, but I know why and I’m ready for this fight. We’ll see what happens. We’re going to see something different.’’
Something different might actually mean somebody familiar. For about a year-and-a half, the punishing domination that defined Canelo hasn’t been there.
It was gone in sluggish performances in victories over Gennadiy Golovkin in a third fight and then a so-called tune-up against John Ryder.
It’s a decline that began with a scorecard loss to light-heavyweight champion to Dmitry Bivol in May 2022.
It’s easy to over-analyze anything said or done at a boxing news conference. But Canelo’s surprising acknowledgement is sign that he’s taken a hard look at himself. To wit: Decline is hard to reverse if self-denial stands in the way.
The real genesis of Canelo’s brilliant career happened because of a scorecard loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013.
It was a majority decision. Truth is, it was a one-sided loss, a majority embarrassment. Canelo heard the criticism, especially from his Mexican fans.
He sifted through that defeat for the lessons it left. He then went back to work, transforming himself into the pound-for-pound, pay-per-view star who – from this corner – was at his dominant best in an 11th-round stoppage of former light-heavyweight king Sergey Kovalev in November 2019.
There’s been a lot of money and public adulation ever since. Through it all, an increasingly-insulated Canelo grew increasingly-impatient with criticism.
Through it all, he also might have suffered an inevitable erosion in his physical reflexes. Endurance has become a huge issue.
He tires in the later rounds, a problem that could be a critical factor against Charlo, a junior-middleweight champion who looked like the bigger man in face-off photos from Beverly Hills and New York.
That evident fatigue is a reason, perhaps, that Canelo continues to sidestep calls for him to fight David Benavidez. As of Thursday, the Phoenix-born super-middleweight was still in negotiations for a fight later this year with unbeaten Demetrius Andrade, a 35-year-old lefthander.
Benavidez is reportedly still in play for a shot at Canelo, if both win. Benavidez is a PBC fighter. Canelo’s fight with Charlo is the first in a three-fight deal with PBC. The deal can be done. But it’s still not clear whether Canelo wants a fight that fans have been demanding for at least a couple of years.
It depends on Charlo. Does Canelo beat him? If he does, how does he perform? If fatigue continues to be an issue, Benavidez could be a big problem.
There are moments when Benavidez looks to be inexhaustible. His energy appears to be at its highest in the later rounds. Think of a snowball going down a steep hill. It only gains momentum and usually ends in a dangerous avalanche that buries anything, anyone in its way.
In this week’s newsers, Charlo said something that could have been said by Benavidez
“My whole career has kind of been all about chasing Canelo,’’ Charlo said.
For Benavidez, that chase might be getting closer to an end. If Charlo beats Canelo, it’s virtually over. Instead, it then might become Benavidez-versus-Charlo.
Canelo is expected to win. He opened as a 2-1 favorite over Charlo in early July. According to some betting sites, the line has been pushed to 4-1. It’s a bet, perhaps, that the old Canelo will remerge, maybe a step slower but still smart enough to know how to adjust.
Canelo-Charlo card to feature best of AZ
From A-to-Z, 22-year-old junior-middleweight Jesus Ramos and 20-year-old middleweight Elijah Garcia are two of boxing’s best prospects.
AZ’s emerging combo will give the Canelo-Charlo undercard some real punch.
Ramos (20-0, 16 KOS), of Casa Grande south of Phoenix, faces Erickson Lubin (25-2, 18 KOs), of Orlando, 15 Rounds has confirmed. Ramos withdrew from a scheduled bout on the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence card on July 29 because of a hand injury.
The Lubin date will be Ramos’ second at junior-middle. He made his debut at 154 pounds in an impressive stoppage of Joey Spence on the undercard of Benavidez’ decision over Caleb Plant on March 25 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.
Garcia (15-0, 12 KOs), of Phoenix, will face Armando Resendiz (14-1, 10 KOs), of Mexico. Garcia has been penciled in for the card for several weeks. But his opponent wasn’t named until this week in a Boxing Scene report from the New York news conference.
Garcia is coming off a decision over Kevin Salgado on the April 22 card featuring Tank Davis’ stoppage of Ryan Garcia at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
Both the Ramos-Lubin and Garcia-Resendiz bouts are scheduled for the pay-per-view portion of the Showtime telecast.
Iron Boy card set for Saturday
The AZ boxing market stays busy Saturday night with promoter Robert Vargas’ latest Iron Boy card at Celebrity Theatre, just east of downtown Phoenix.
Junior-welterweights Trini Ochoa (15-0) of Mesa, and Miguel Zamudio (45-17-1), of Mexico, are scheduled for the main event.
In his last bout, Zamudio got stopped by Lindolfo Delgado, who won a decision last Saturday in the co-main event on a card featured by Emanuel Navarrete’s unanimous decision over Oscar Valdez Jr. in a Fight-of-the-Year contender at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, west of Phoenix.
First bell is scheduled for 5 p.m. (Arizona time).
