Another fight of Canelo Alvarez and another dominant performance of one of the best boxing fighters per kilogram. Alvarez defeated Avni Yildirim by technical elimination 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 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, disappointed with 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 come to him than to actually face him, competing with him. This fight was not a real competition at all and that is part of Alvarez’s problem right now. He is the star of the sport, but he doesn’t have much to choose from in terms of legitimate opponents to fight.
Alphabetic organizations can still throw rivals at you, but it doesn’t look like there will be many that will be competitive. Yildirim shouldn’t have been in that ring. Is Saunders a guy who can really compete with Alvarez for his belts? Or will there be another coronation on May 8? Let’s face it, 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 does not have truly spectacular victories. Yes, he defeated Willie Monroe Jr., David Lemieux and Chris Eubank Jr. in the middleweight division, but none of those fighters are close to the elite.
Saunders also doesn’t have much power. He failed to eliminate Martin Murray in a fight he dominated in December. And of his 30 victories, Saunders has only 14 eliminators. That doesn’t bode well for Alvarez, who took every shot from Gennadiy Golovkin in his epic series in two fights.
There is only one guy who could put pressure on Alvarez: WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. And that would have the potential to be a super fight.
Rothstein: Charlo would be interesting and it’s a good idea; although by crossing promoters, who knows if the fight would take place or when. However, this could be one of the advantages of Alvarez being alone in his promotional conditions.
But how did the fight on Saturday night go? Yildirim was a mandatory challenger and not a challenge at all. How often do we see this today: Are obligatory challengers essentially struggling to stay busy to delay the inevitable? For Alvarez, this delayed unification against Saunders, a possible third fight against Golovkin, or perhaps that 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 López and George Kambosos Jr. It feels less and less that the obligatory provocateur ends up offering a fight that deserves to be, well, obligatory. Instead, it seems that global bodies are trying to remain relevant.
At some point, after a fight like this, is it possible to need a change in the way the mandatory defense of the title is determined?
Baby: Oh, sure. But the conversation about the mandatory defense of the title is just one of the many problems with the sanctioning bodies. Take a 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 (IBF) – and the lists (and champions) won’t make much or no sense. There must be greater coherence and logic in the ranking of these four agencies.
For a while, this made The Ring Magazine championship so great. The credibility of the post, along with strong rankings, made the belt the most legitimate and easiest for casual fans to understand. 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 (William Hill has his favorite -588 in the UK since Sunday morning), what will he do next?
Rothstein: Going to MMA? Fighting a brother Paul? That seems to be fashionable nowadays. It’s a joke. Seriously, I’m kidding. If Alvarez really wants to fight four times this year, then maybe he’ll try to see if he can finish unifying the super-middleweight division by fighting IBF champion Caleb Plant or go down to 160 to fight Charlo. The other option could be to try to go to the light heavyweight division to fight the unified champion Artur Beterbiev.
There are options, but at the moment, it seems that every fight Alvarez has should be one of two things: an excellent source of income or one in which to win another belt in one division or another. Easier said than done to have all that movement, but Alvarez is the only fighter who can do that.
Of course, the other option is to seal that trilogy against Golovkin, which would fall into the category of the money generator. If Alvarez did this by the end of 2021, it could open up a lot of opportunities to establish a 2022 in which he could take several steps to be considered one of the greatest fighters of all time.