LAS VEGAS ? Imagine that on your biggest day at work, things go horribly, inexplicably and devastatingly wrong. You’ve promised your bosses and your co-workers a masterpiece, and the final product is far from it.
You know it, your boss knows it and most everyone you come in contact with knows it.
And then, for the next two years, no matter what else you do, you hear about that bad night. As well as you may do on every succeeding project, it’s that huge misstep a couple of years ago everyone wants to discuss.
That’s Canelo Alvarez’s world. He’s arguably boxing’s biggest star now, yet even as he prepares to fight Miguel Cotto on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in a hotly anticipated bout that will be distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View, he’s haunted by memories of his worst night as a pro.
Twenty-six months ago, a bold, confident and unbeaten Alvarez climbed into the ring convinced that he’d topple Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather entered that bout as boxing’s reigning pound-for-pound champion. But Alvarez, 23 at the time, scoffed at the notion that after eight years and 43 fights he was in over his head.
It turns out, though, that he indeed was overmatched that night, with everything going right until the bell rang. He looked like a young and inexperienced guy nowhere near ready for a veteran of Mayweather’s skill and experience.
His promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, made that point emphatically last week in an open letter he wrote in Playboy to Mayweather. Regarding the bout with Alvarez, De La Hoya wrote, “… you took on Mexican megastar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, but he was too young and had to drop too much weight. ? “
Now, Mayweather is retired and relegated to the history books (unless of course, he does as so many boxers do and comes back), and now Alvarez is back on the big stage.
His bout on Saturday with Cotto for the linear middleweight championship is his best chance yet to put that Mayweather fight in the rear-view mirror forever and stake his claim as a full-fledged superstar.
Cotto, like Mayweather, is one of the icons of this sport, a veteran destined for the International Boxing Hall of Fame on the first day he’s eligible for induction.
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Canelo Alvarez fans hold up Mexican flags during a news conference in Los Angeles for the announcement of his bout ? The fight is arguably the year’s most anticipated other than the May 2 bout between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao that turned out to be a stylistic dud. It’s not only a renewal of the usually fierce Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry, but it pits men who are aggressive, action fighters with good boxing skills against one another.
A win over Cotto would be significant for Alvarez in so many ways. He’s the shining light at Golden Boy, one of the biggest ticket sellers in the game. He drew more than 30,000 to Houston’s Minute Maid Park for his last bout, a spectacular KO of James Kirkland. The match drew the highest rating HBO had gotten on boxing since 2006.
“You learn from every fight and being on that stage before, I learned a lot,” Alvarez said of his loss to Mayweather in 2013. “I gained a lot of experience. I’ve said it. You know what, at this particular point, I feel very solid. I’m ready and I’m going to show it on Saturday.”
Boxing is a sport too stricken by a single loss. In a perfect world, it shouldn’t mean too much. However, far too often, a fighter is penalized for a loss in an otherwise fun fight. That’s wrong.
But Alvarez has felt the sting of the loss because he didn’t perform as many expected he might. He’s a classic boxer-puncher yet there was little of the action or aggressiveness everyone expected.
He clearly showed that against Kirkland, an opponent who was tailor made for him to look good against.
Alvarez is certainly talented enough to defeat Cotto, but it’s going to be no easy feat. But that is exactly what he needs.
Alvarez is 25, just heading into his prime, and a win over a well-respected veteran like Cotto will do wonders for his career.
Of course, Cotto trainer Freddie Roach has done his best to get into Alvarez’s head and has repeatedly pointed out the Mexican’s flaws.
“Canelo’s defense is terrible,” Roach said. Then, pointing out a flaw that hurt Alvarez in the ring against Mayweather, Roach added, “He follows you wherever you go. He’s like a robot. If you use angles on him, he will be lost. He cannot make adjustments well.”
Alvarez is a bright guy and knows full well what he must do to beat Cotto, who has undergone a late-career resurgence under Roach’s tutelage.
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Miguel Cotto (R) punches Daniel Geale during their WBC middleweight world championship fight in June. (Getty) Both of them were Mayweather victims (Cotto in 2012), but Cotto put up a much better fight. Mayweather was marked up in his bout with Cotto, though he clearly won. Alvarez barely touched Mayweather, which made C.J. Ross’ final scorecard of 114-114 so puzzling.
A win against Cotto and Alvarez zooms to the top of the list in boxing. He’d unquestionably become the sport’s biggest star.
But if he has another performance like he did against Mayweather, who knows what the future will bring.
De La Hoya inadvertently put the pressure on his guy when he was trying to hype the fight. Nothing he said was out of line, but his comments put the burden squarely on Alvarez.
“For Latinos all over the world, this is our Super Bowl,” the Golden Boy said. “This is an event that not one Hispanic, not one Latino, is going to miss. That is how important this event is to us. Puerto Rico versus Mexico is like no other event for those countries. This is like our Super Bowl. That’s how important this event is.”
Alvarez can’t afford another high-profile flop. He knows it. He looks loose and relaxed, ready for the fight of his life.
He only thinks about the Mayweather fight because he’s asked about it so often, he said.
But if he puts on a memorable show against Cotto, that question can finally be thrown into the garbage can forever.
