It was not the ?greatest fight in Mexican history,? as foretold by Canelo?s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, but one of the worst?
Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a fight televised live on HBO Pay-Per-View, Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs), the redhead from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, won a unanimous decision over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs), the hapless son of a legend from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, after 12 lopsided rounds.
All three judges scored the fight 120-108. Chavez didn?t win a round. He didn?t win a minute of any round. What he did win was grudging respect for taking a beating for a profitable night of work.
It was not, however, the ?greatest fight in Mexican history,? as foretold by Canelo?s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, but one of the worst.
Fighting out of the red corner in blue trunks with gold trim, Canelo had his way with his opponent from the opening bell. He raked his foe with jabs, hooks, straight rights and uppercuts, but failed to get his moribund challenger out of there.
Junior deserves credit for enduring the barrage. But the buck stops there.
Chavez, fighting out of the blue corner in white trunks trimmed in red, needs to retire before he gets seriously hurt. His entry into boxing always felt less like a career than an oedipal exercise, as if had something to prove to his dad, and that was never more true than in the folly against Canelo.
He has no defense. He doesn?t move his head. He has no footwork. He is slow and telegraphs his punches.
Chavez is inarguably a limited fighter with limited gifts, if not limited means, and he, like many fight fans who have not yet learned otherwise, has been exploited, and perhaps lied to, so that others might benefit.
The upside of Saturday?s main event is that Canelo is going to fight Gennady Golovkin in September. Triple G was present during the match, even though we were told he would not be attending, and the hoopla surrounding the announcement will only grow over time. But coming as it did after after a mismatch of monumental proportions has somewhat tainted the news.
At least Canelo vs. Golovkin will be competitive. The superlatives are already flying fast and furious. But at this early date they are premature and ineffective, especially while the aftertaste of the fight with Chavez Jr. lingers.
