Canelo Entering a New Phase of Career
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 08 Apr 2022
On May 7, 2022 Cinco De Mayo weekend, fight fans will witness Undisputed (WBA/WBC/WBO/IBF) Super middleweight (168lbs) Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) challenge Dimtry Bivol (19-0, 11KOs) for his WBA light heavyweight title (175lbs).
Pay Per View (PPV) wise, Canelo belongs to a small group of elite fighters who not only attract hardcore boxing fans, but also attract a “mainstream” audience for the “big fight” generally held on a Saturday night. As soon as the “Big Fight” is over, the “mainstream” occasional boxing fans return back to their sports of choice such as football, baseball, hockey, basketball, etc.
Retired or active, fighters such as Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De la Hoya, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, etc. also belong to that elite class of PPV money maker.
No matter what one thinks of Canelo he is the current face of boxing and the proverbial “cash cow” for PPV boxing. For that reason, every name fighter in and around the 168lbs division has challenged Canelo to a fight. Name fighters as low as the 147lbs division all the way up to the cruiserweight division (200lbs) are waiting for a call from the Canelo camp for a fight. Even Mixed Martial Arts fighters want to fight Canelo.
Recently, there was a bidding war for Canelo’s services between Matchroom Promotions headed by Eddie Hearns and Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) headed by Al Haymon. PBC initially, reportedly, offered Canelo $45 million to fight WBC Champion (160lbs) Jermall Charlo. Matchroom offered Canelo a 2 fight deal reportedly worth $85 million for Dimitry Bivol and if victorious Gennady Golovkin for a rubbermatch. Canelo-Golovkin would be a rubbermatch because Canelo had two fights with Golovkin (1 draw 2017, 1 win 2018). Then it appears in an effort to counter Matchroom’s offer, PBC raised their offer to $100 million by adding former 168lbs champion David Benavidez as the second fight if Canelo defeated Charlo. After considering both offers, Canelo decided to sign for Matchroom’s 2 fight offer and for a potential third fight in December that could earn him as high as total of $160 million for all three fights should he defeat Bivol and Golovkin.
The consensus view from Boxing Critics and fans is they want to see Canelo face David Benavidez, and should he defeat him, fight unified light heavyweight WBC/IBF champion Artur Beterbiev. The order of those “super fights” really doesn’t matter, only that Canelo fight them both.
Some boxing writers have Canelo as their “Pound for Pound” (P4P) best fighter in the boxing today. Canelo may very well be the best P4P in boxing today, but to many he must prove that he is the best P4P by defeating Bivol in an impressive fashion as well as defeating Golovkin should they fight, and whomever he faces in December. Canelo’s last seven opponents are clearly not as good as the fighters currently offered by both Matchroom and PBC for that matter. It will be interesting to see how well Canelo does fighting Bivol as Bivol is a good boxer, has a decent punch, and good movement.
Moving forward Canelo will no doubt take on bigger challenges. Canelo has received criticism from many in the boxing world for catchweight and rehydration clauses for previous fights. It’s interesting to note that for the Bivol fight the Canelo camp has gone on record saying there are no such stipulations regarding weight. Both fighters are to weigh in at 175bls 24hrs before the fight as is the process and on fight night who knows what Bivol or Canelo will weigh.
Fight fans can now expect the big fights from Canelo without any criticism that this a “B” or “C” class fighter which would tip the balance in his favor. Bivol is clearly better and bigger than Canelo's last 7 opponents. Starting with Bivol if Canelo will consistently fight the best fighters in “big fights” in and around his weight class his career has definitely entered a new phase.
This writer picks Canelo to defeat Bivol by Split decision victory which will begin to silence his critics.
Boxing Notes
Last month, Interim WBC lightweight champion Ryan Garcia said he would agree to a 50-50 split of the fight purse with WBA lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis in an effort to make a future “super fight”. Now that Ryan has hired Joe Goosen as his new Trainer and Tank Davis’s will be a free agent after his fight with Rolly Romero, perhaps the lightweight division can see a marquee matchup. https://boxing-social.com/news/ryan-garcia-says-he-would-take-a-50-50-deal-to-fight-gervonta-davis/... Unified Junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo said in a Boxing interview from another outlet that, “A 160-pounder (Jermall Charlo) coming up to fight Benavidez to me, personally, is just like, ‘hmm, you still picking on the smaller guy,” Charlo told Brian Custer on The Last Stand Podcast. Charlo further went on to say, “I like Benavidez heart, I like his style, I like how he’s relentless on his punching,” Charlo said. “I think personally that Benavidez would be better at heavyweight. He’s a big ol’ mother------s.
“He fights out of his weight division. He’s just beating up on little mother-----s. For real, for real.” https://www.boxingscene.com/jermell-charlo-on-david-benavidez-hes-not-real-168-pounder-needs-fight-cruiserweight--164827. Charlo’s assessment can be made regarding most fighters in boxing. Many `Light heavyweight (175lbs) fighters walk around at reportedly 220lbs (Heavyweight). They lose 45lbs and fight at light heavyweight. They rehydrate 24hrs before fight time and come into the ring at 190lbs -195lbs. In fact, most fighters go down to a lower weight class to have a physical advantage over their opponent. This is not breaking the rules and totally acceptable…Talking about David Benavidez, he says if he can’t get a high profile fight at 168lbs he will move to 175lbs. Big names are definitely in the 175lns division. Athur Buterbiev, Canelo, and Ramirez. A fight with any of the 3 aforementioned fighters would be a big fight…WBO welterweight champion Terrance Crawford wants to fight the winner of Spence-Ugas fight for the WBA/WBC/IBF. If Ugas defeats Spence, Ugas will no doubt fight Crawford for his WBO belt in his next fight, and that will make him the first Cuban to hold all 4 title belts if he can defeat Crawford and will also make millions of dollars fighting Crawford. If Spence defeats Ugas, look for Spence to fight Keith Thurman and then Spence moves up to the 154lb or the 160lbs division. Yes, 160lbs division. Spence has a body frame like Thomas Hearns and Spence can do doubt carry the pounds into the middleweight division.
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.
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