SONAHR: March 9, 2014 – In his last fight before his bout with Alfredo ?Perro? Angulo at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday, Mexican idol Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez was taken to school by Floyd Mayweather Jr. So it stands to reason that Canelo?s brain trust would pick a comeback opponent for him whose style would be as far from Mayweather?s as possible.
Angulo, who bears a slight resemblance to former welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, fit that specification to a ?T?. Coming into the encounter with a record of 22-3, with 18 KOs, Angulo is a straight-ahead banger who is something of a high-level gate-keeper ? good enough to test the best, but not quite good enough to crack the championship elite. He is something like what Marcos Maidana was before Maidana broke through with his victory over highly touted (in his own mind, at least) Adrien Broner. Now Maidana is slated to be Mayweather?s next opponent.
Could Angulo pull off a similar upset against Alvarez, who might still have been demoralized by the ease with which Mayweather handled him? Nope. Last year, Alvarez could not find Mayweather in the ring. This time, Canelo could not miss Angulo, who stood in front of Alvarez and banged it out. Alvarez?s edge in hand speed made all the difference necessary for him to gradually turn a two-way slugfest into a one-sided beatdown. Although Angulo protested the referee?s decision to stop the fight in the 10th round, ?Perro? had suffered enough punishment, and was certainly not dishonored in defeat.
A relatively easy win over a relatively tough opponent ? in terms of a comeback fight after a bad loss, Alvarez definitely accomplished his ?mission possible.? But does that mean he?s ready for another crack at Mayweather (assuming Floyd gets past Maidana) or even a move up from junior-middleweight to middleweight?
Nope. A win against a fighter who is the opposite of Mayweather does not mean that Canelo will be any more prepared for Floyd than he was last year. It also doesn?t make Alvarez an automatic favorite over other top junior-middleweights such as Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto, or Demetrious Andrade.
At 160 lbs, the pickings look a bit better. Alvarez could probably handle the likes of faded ex-champion Daniel Geale or failed title challengers such as Martin Murray or Marco Antonio Rubio. He would also stand a good chance against the aging Sergio Martinez. A bout with undefeated WBO champion Peter Quillin could be a fight-of-the-year candidate. However, Alvarez needs to stay far, far away from WBA champion Gennady Golovkin, who could well give him a worse beating than Mayweather did.
Alvarez did well on Saturday. In future fights, he will win more than he loses. But he is not the Next Great Mexican Fighter, which is what those on his bandwagon thought he was going to be before he ran into Mayweather.
