Saul “Canelo” Alvarez should focus on improving his speed and power for the remainder of his training in order to have a fighting chance of beating Floyd Mayweather when they collide on Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alvarez and Mayweather are both unbeaten in their professional boxing careers and one of them will keep his unblemished record while the other will take his first painful loss on fight night. Mayweather, 36, has won all his 44 professional fights without a single loss in his record book while Alvarez, 23, has won 42 of his 43 professional fights with one draw. Mayweather stands 5’8″ with a reach of 72″ while Alvarez is 1″ taller at 5’9″ with a reach of 71 inches. Mayweather is favored to win over the young Mexican challenger, who is more than a decade younger than Mayweather. Barely two weeks before they face each other in the ring, Alvarez is determined to put a “O” on Mayweather’s Wikipedia record. “I’m a strong-minded fighter,” Alvarez recently said. “I’m not going to fight the fight he wants me to do. I will fight the fight I need to fight to win.” But critics say that Alvarez has a slim chance of winning against Mayweather, who is noted for his flawless defensive style and his ability to score while blocking power shots by his opponent. Mayweather’s records show that most of his wins came via unanimous or split decisions while only few came via knockout. Mayweather is not a knockout artist and he is happy winning on points, though he is often criticized for being a boring fighter to watch. Mayweather is expected to face Alvarez with his usual defensive fighting style and apply his mastery of boxing skills that he kept on improving through the years. If Alvarez will fight with his usual style of boxing which is anchored more on power shots and less with speed and agility, he could end up frustrated with Mayweather and suffer his first career loss. Boxing analysts say that the reason Mayweather has been ducking Manny Pacquiao for more than three years despite the life-changing amount of money at stake?in what appears to be the richest boxing fight in history?is Pacquiao’s fighting style which is designed to break Mayweather’s defensive fighting stance. If Alvarez can duplicate Pacquiao’s foot and hand speed to complement or blend with his own offensive power shots, there is a good chance of breaking into Mayweather’s defense and drive him into a panic mode for a knockout win. For sure Mayweather will try to drag the fight into the late rounds to accumulate more points as he has done in many of his fights. It is therefore important for Alvarez to launch his attack using the Pacquiao-style foot and hand speed early in the fight to prevent Mayweather from generating more points towards the later rounds. For Alvarez to win the fight he has to duplicate Pacquiao’s fighting style. Oscar de la Hoya, who lost to Mayweather via a split decision in 2007 said, “We are not going to see a flat-footed Canelo, and we’re not going to see a heavy-footed Canelo.” “We’re going to see a light-footed Canelo Alvarez that we’ve never seen before. People are going to be very surprised. That also would include his speed. His hand speed and lightning quick punches that he’s capable of, we’re going to see that.” de la Hoya added. If indeed Alvarez is working on his hand and foot speed as de la Hoya said, Mayweather should now plan his counter attack or Alvarez will hit the brake to stop his 44-fight winning streak.
