Another fight by Canelo Álvarez and another dominant performance by one of the best boxers pound by pound in boxing. Alvarez defeated Avni Yildirim by technical knockout on Saturday to hold the super middleweight titles of the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Association (WBA).
We already know what’s next for Alvarez: a title unification fight against Billy Joe Saunders on May 8th. But what can we learn from Alvarez’s three-round performance at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium? Ben Baby and Michael Rothstein react to the victory, disappointment at Yildirim’s performance and what could be Alvarez’s long-term plan.
Rothstein: Avni Yildirim spent more time waiting in the ring for Alvarez to reach him than actually facing him, competing with him. This fight was not a real competition at all, and that is part of the problem for Alvarez at the time. He’s the star of the sport, but he doesn’t have many options in terms of legitimate opponents to fight.
Alphabet organizations may continue to throw rivals at it, but there doesn’t seem to be many that will be competitive. Yildirim should not have been in that ring. Is Saunders a guy who can really compete with Alvarez for his belts? Or will another coronation be held on May 8? To be realistic, the pre-fight mini-concert with J Balvin was more interesting than any action we saw in the ring on Saturday night.
Baby: I really don’t think Saunders offers much competition. Saunders can do some good things, but his undefeated record holds no truly spectacular victory. Yes, he has beaten Willie Monroe Jr., David Lemieux and Chris Eubank Jr. in the middleweight, but none of these fighters are even close to being elite.
Also, Saunders doesn’t have much power. He could not knock out Martin Murray in a fight he dominated in December. And of his 30 wins, Saunders has just 14 knockouts. This is not a good omen when he faces Alvarez, who endured all the blows of Gennadiy Golovkin in his epic two-fight series.
There is only one guy who could put pressure on Alvarez: the CMB middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. And that would have the potential to be a super fight.
Rothstein: Charlo would be intriguing and it’s a good idea; although due to cross-promoters, who knows if this fight would take place or when. However, this could be one of the advantages that Alvarez is only under his terms of promotion.
But how did the Saturday night fight go? Yildirim was a mandatory challenger, and it wasn’t a big challenge at all. How often do we see this today: Are mandatory challengers essentially in fights to stay busy to delay the inevitable? For Alvarez, he delayed unification against Saunders, a possible third fight against Golovkin or perhaps this fight against Charlo.
It’s also not the only fight of its kind we’ll see, not even the only one in the news this week. We could see a similar situation later this year with Teofimo Lopez and George Kambosos Jr. It feels increasingly rare for the mandatory challenger to end up giving a fight that is worthy of being, well, mandatory. Instead, it seems that global bodies are trying to stay relevant.
At some point, after a fight like this, is there perhaps a need for a change in the way the mandatory defenses of the title are determined?
Baby: Oh, sure. But the conversation about mandatory title defenses is just one of many problems with sanctioning agencies. Look at the rankings of any of the four major bodies: the WBA, the WBC, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and the International Boxing Federation (FIB) – and the lists (and champions) will make little or no sense. . There needs to be greater coherence and logic in the classifications of these four organisms.
For a while, this was what made The Ring Magazine’s championship so grand. The publication’s credibility, along with solid ratings, made its belt the most legitimate and easy-to-understand for casual fans. But even that has eroded in recent years.
Going back to Alvarez, what is a perfect 2021 for him? If he beats Saunders, as he should (the William Hill bookmaker has him as the -588 favorite in the UK starting Sunday morning), what will he do next?
Rothstein: Going to MMA? Fighting with a brother Paul? This seems to be in vogue these days. It’s a joke. Seriously, it’s a joke. If Alvarez really wants to fight four times this year, then maybe try to see if he can finish unifying the super middleweight division by fighting FIB champion Caleb Plant or go down to 160 to fight Charlo. The other option could be to try to relegate from light heavyweight division to fight against unified champion Artur Beterbiev.
There are options, but at this point, it seems like every fight Alvarez has should be one of two things: a great source of income or one in which he can win another belt in one division or another. It’s easier said than done to have all this movement, but Alvarez is the only fighter who can do that.
Of course, the other option is to seal this trilogy against Golovkin, which would fall into the money generator category. If Alvarez did this to end 2021, he could open up a lot of opportunities to chart a 2022 in which he could take more steps to be considered one of the best fighters of all time.