Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez catches so much flak from fans and media that when you post something positive about the guy, there?s a tendency to feel the need to qualify it.
?He?s gonna fight Daniel Jacobs next in a legitimately tough middleweight contest?but he?s coming off a Rocky Fielding walkover.?
?He?s fought some legitimately tough-to-decipher master boxers like Floyd Mayweather, Erislandy Lara, and Austin Trout?but he lost to Mayweather and maybe, kinda, shoulda lost to Lara and Trout.?
?He signed on to fight the much-avoided Paul Williams right before Williams suffered his career-ending motorcycle accident and also pursued a bout with James Kirkland when ?The Mandingo Warrior? was still a feared beast?but he DIDN?T fight Williams and fought ?beasts? Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo when they were spent bullets.?
There?s always something in the way when it comes to giving Alvarez full credit?and, to be fair, that ?something? is sometimes of Alvarez?s (or his team?s) own doing. But, often, Alvarez is blasted just for being Alvarez?a kid fight fans (who often fancy themselves ?hard? for following a hard sport) feel got fame too easily, got money too easily, smiles too impeccably, pouts too frequently, and generally doesn?t fit into the standard casting idea of what fighters should look like and talk like.
But that blanket cynicism has to end at some point, right? If Alvarez maintains a high level of opposition, performs well against that opposition, and stays away from any future positive drug tests, the sandblasting of his body of work will stop, right?
Well, putting up his WBC and WBA middleweight titles against Daniel Jacobs? IBF belt in a160 lb. unification this coming May 4, during Cinco de Mayo weekend, should go a long way in making the pro-Canelo case. Jacobs is an undisputed top-4 player in the division who, many feel, did just enough to edge Gennady Golovkin in a March, 2017 bout and, most recently, defeated a tough Sergiy Derevyanchenko to take the vacant IBF strap. It could be argued that Jacobs is the best, most deserving opponent available for Canelo at the moment.
?I will unify my middleweight titles against Daniel Jacobs on one of the two most important dates that belong to me,? Alvarez recently told media. ?I have no doubt that I will be victorious and that I?ll be one step away from becoming the undisputed middleweight world champion.?
And, after Jacobs, Canelo?s new broadcast home, DAZN, seems to be lining things up perfectly for a real run at turning their $365 million investment into THE star of this post-Mayweather generation.
The recently ordered Demetrius Andrade-Billy Joe Saunders bout could establish the next Canelo challenger, with the goal being the Canelo annexation of the WBO belt, currently held by Andrade and formerly held by Saunders.
With a win over the winner of Andrade-Saunders, Alvarez would hold all four recognized world titles in the middleweight division. Then, throw in a win over a one-year-older Gennady Golovkin and, somewhere along the line, a blasting of David Lemieux as a requisite ?gimme.?
By the end of next year, the then-30-year-old could hold all the belts at 160 and legitimately claim to have worked his way to the top by beating the best of the best in the division?and only Jermall Charlo, kept outside the Canelo paywall via his ties to Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime/Fox, could claim otherwise.
Although one would like to think that a legitimately impressive run to undisputed 4-belt status would win critics over and open the door for a full embrace of the ticket-selling former teenage phenom, smart boxing people know better.
In this social media age where winning an argument is more important than being right, none of the reality will matter when it comes to what Alvarez has done. Whoever he beats will be diminished as ?too old, too limited, too handcuffed by pro-Alvarez judges.? New obstacles to full acceptance will replace the old obstacles as soon as they are hurdled. Those who criticize now, will criticize later, with the facts budging very few from their positions.
Oh well?such is life?and boxing. Saul Alvarez will just have to console himself with worldwide fame and his gigantic stacks of cash.
