Another fight from Canelo Alvarez and another dominating performance from one of the best pound-for-pound boxers. Alvarez defeated Avni Yildirim by technical knockout on Saturday to retain the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Association (WBA) super middleweight titles.
We already know what’s next for Alvarez: a title union battle against Billy Joe Saunders on May 8. But what can we learn from Alvarez’s three-round performance at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami? Ben Baby and Michael Rothstein comment on the win, disappointment with Yildirim’s performance and what Alvarez’s long-term plan might be.
Rothstein: Avni Yildirim spent more time waiting in the ring for Alvarez to come to him than actually facing him and competing with him. This fight wasn’t a real competition at all, and that’s part of the problem for Alvarez right now. He’s the star of the sport, but he doesn’t have much of a choice in terms of legitimate opponents to fight.
Alphabet organizations may keep throwing rivals at you, but it doesn’t look like there will be many competitors. Yildirim shouldn’t have been in that ring. Is Saunders a man who can really compete with Alvarez for his belts? Or will there be another coronation on May 8? Because let’s be honest, 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 has much competition. Saunders can do some things well, but his unbeaten record doesn’t really have spectacular wins. Yes, he has Willie Monroe Jr., David Lemieux and Chris Eubank Jr. beaten in middleweight, but none of those fighters is even an elite.
Saunders doesn’t have much power either. He failed to take out Martin Murray in a fight he dominated in December. And of his 30 wins, Saunders has only 14 knockouts. That doesn’t bode well when he faces Alvarez, who took every hit from Gennadiy Golovkin in his epic two-fight series.
There is only one man who can pressure Alvarez: WBC Middleweight Champion Jermall Charlo. And that would have the potential to turn into a super fight.
Rothstein: Charlo would be intriguing and it’s a good idea; though due to the fact of crossing promoters who knows if that fight would take place and when. However, that could be one of the benefits of Alvarez being alone under his promotional terms.
But how did the fight on Saturday night come about? Yildirim was an obligatory challenger, and it wasn’t a challenge at all. How often do we see this these days: mandatory challengers essentially struggle to keep busy putting off the inevitable? For Alvarez, it delayed unification against Saunders, a possible third fight against Golovkin or maybe that fight against Charlo.
It’s also not the only fight of this type we’ll be seeing, not even the only one in the news this week. We could see a similar situation later this year with Teofimo López and George Kambosos Jr. It feels increasingly rare for the mandatory challenger to end up fighting a fight worth, well, mandatory. Instead, it appears that global organizations are trying to stay relevant.
At some point after a fight like this, is there perhaps a need for a change in the way mandatory title defenses are determined?
Baby: Oh sure. But the conversation about mandatory title defense is just one of the many problems with sanctioning bodies. Look at the rankings from one of the four major agencies – the WBA, the WBC, the World Boxing Organization (WBO), and the International Boxing Federation (IBF) – and the rosters (and the champions) make little or no sense. The ranking of these four agencies must contain more coherence and logic.
For a while, this was what made The Ring Magazine’s Championship so great. The credibility of the post, coupled with its strong rankings, made its belt the most legit and easy to understand for casual fans. But even that has eroded in recent years.
If I go back to Álvarez, what’s a perfect 2021 for him? If he beats Saunders, as he should (bookmaker William Hill has him as UK -588 favorite from Sunday morning), what will he do?
Rothstein: Go to MMA? Are you fighting with a brother Paul? That all seems to be the rage these days. It is a joke. Seriously, just kidding. If Alvarez really wants to fight four times this year, he might try to see if he can complete the super middleweight division unit by fighting IBF champion Caleb Plant or get to 160 to fight Charlo. The other option could be to try moving up the division to light heavyweight to fight against unified champion Artur Beterbiev.
There are options, but at this point it seems that every fight Alvarez has should be one of two things: a great source of income or a resource where he can win another belt in some division. Easier said than done to have all that movement, but Alvarez is the only hunter who can.
The other option, of course, is to seal that trilogy against Golovkin, who would fall into the money generator category. If Alvarez did that to end 2021, it could provide a ton of opportunities to chart a 2022 where he could take more steps to be considered one of the greatest fighters of all time.