Canelo Poised for Another Fighter of the Year Award?
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 21 Dec 2020
Pound for pound king Saul Canelo Alvarez may be poised for a back to back Fighter of the Year award following his dominant 12 round unanimous decision victory over Callum Smith of the UK Saturday night in Las Vegas.
In winning, Alvarez cemented his hold of the super middleweight division as he won Callum's WBA super and Ring Magazine as well as the vacant WBC super middleweight titles. He has previously won the WBA regular title from Rocky Fielding, also of UK in 2018.
It would be very hard to deny Alvarez despite figuring in his only fight of the year as this is a strong follow up to his WBO light heavyweight title knockout victory over Sergei Kovalev which won him the FOY award last year.
Canelo Alvarez (R) delivers a left to Callum Smith jaw during their super middleweight fight Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Smith was a high quality champion having topped the previous Super Tournament in the 168 lbs division in 2018 which saw him beat George Groves in the finals. He also stopped Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam in his last fight.
The red head Mexican has now won world titles in four weight divisions, namely 154, 160, 168 and 175 lbs. though he opts to hold just the WBA super and Ring middleweight titles in addition to the three he has just won against Smith at super middleweight.
The victory will also fortify Canelo's hold of the pound for pound top position against closest rivals Terrence Crawford and Naoya Inoue. Crawford and Inoue also won their only fights in the year but against lesser opponents in Kell Brook and Jason Moloney, both winning by stoppages.
Teofimo Lopez (R) connects with a right at Vasiliy Lomachenko.
Before the Alvarez-Smith fight, Tyson Fury and Teofimo Lopez were seen as the strongest bets for this year's FOY award.
Former lineal champion Fury knocked out the dreaded previously undefeated American KO artist and WBC titlist Deontay Wilder in the 4th round to regain a share of the heavyweight title and remain unbeaten himself in February.
Fury fighting further in the year was hindered by the Covid pandemic and contractual conflicts.
Last October, Lopez made good his promise of takeover in the lightweight division by dominating previous pound for pound topnotcher Vasily Lomachenko, stripping him of all but one of the available titles for grab via unanimous decision.
The win over Loma came after Lopez had won the IBF lightweight title by two round demolition of Ghana's Richard Commey in December 2019.
But Lopez was also coming off a previous difficult win over Japanese Masayoshi Nakatani who on the other hand may be in the running for some award with his recent come from behind knockout of Felix Verdejo.
Fury and Lopez may still provide Canelo stiff competition for this year's FOY award though.
Tyson Fury (L) smacks Deontay Wilder's face with a jab.
The Covid 19 pandemic wrecks havoc on pro boxing forcing a lengthy suspension on bouts on global scale, and later when boxing has resumed, replacements in and cancellation of some major fights that could have also figured in some of the top annual awards.
Canelo was also in consideration for the FOY award in 2018 following his middleweight title decision win over Gennady Golovkin and knockout victory over Fielding but Vasily Lomachenko won the award that year.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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