March 5th, 2011 will go down in the history books as a historical night for Mexico’s Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez as he became the youngest champion to capture a piece of the junior middleweight crown as he bested England’s Matthew Hatton over twelve one-sided rounds. Picking his brave foe apart inside of the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, Alvarez picked up the vacant WBC crown in a fight in which he was in command for nearly every second.
With a backing from Golden Boy Promotions and having slowly but surely introduced himself to American audiences, Alvarez seems to be on the verge of super stardom although some would say that the 20-year still has a ways to go. One fellow pugilist who has been taking plenty of shots at Alvarez as of late is lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez, who had plenty of ammunition after seeing Alvarez fail to make weight for his bout with Hatton.
Alvarez and Hatton had agreed to come in at 150 pounds for their clash but Alvarez surprised many when he tipped the scales at 151.8 pounds. After failing to make the weight after an hour’s time, Alvarez was fined 20% of his $350,000 purse, $70,000 to be exact, before moving forward with the contest.
Even before the young fighter had a chance to prove himself against Hatton, Marquez was busy firing salvos of his own.
Slideshow: Images of Alvarez’s drubbing of Matthew Hatton
“It shows you that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a champion,” Marquez said in a BoxingScene.com piece by Hesiquio Balderas. “I mean how can you fail to make the contracted weight that you imposed on your opponent, and doing it in your first world title shot is unbelievable.”
A professional for nearly eighteen years running, Marquez is a pro’s pro and goes about his every move in the sport with calculated precision. The Mexico City star feels that Alvarez failing to make weight was a sign of him focusing on the wrong battle.
“What I said is true, you train to lose weight,” he continued. “Your first opponent is the scale. You have to prepare to beat the weight and then have a strategy to beat your foe, but he failed big time after so much hype. This is unacceptable, irresponsible, no more no less.”
Marquez went on to claim that Alvarez was ‘trying to fool the public’ and also predicted that he would have an easy time with Hatton due to his advantage in size, which proved to be the case on Saturday night. The young fighter won nearly every round, sweeping the cards by scores of 119-108, and his only blemish was from having lost a point in the seventh round due to hitting after the break.
For his part, Alvarez responded to Marquez by insisting that every fighter has their own path and even challenged him to a fight inside of the ring despite the fact that they are three weight classes away from one another.
Marquez last saw action on November 27th, winning a 9th round TKO over Michael Katsidis at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it is unsure of what his next move will be. He bypassed an April 9th fight with Erik Morales and there are whispers that he will be looking to break free of his promotional contract with Golden Boy on his way towards chasing a third fight with rival Manny Pacquiao, who is promoted by Top Rank.
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at [email protected]
