Careful what you wish for, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.
Following Canelo's impressive win over the previously undefeated Austin Trout on April 20, the Los Angeles Times' Lance Pugmire quoted Alvarez as saying: "How many times do I have to say it? Mayweather is who I want."
I love Alvarez's bold ambition. However, he may want to rethink that proclamation.
With his elite defense and blinding speed on vivid display in his dismantling of Robert Guerrero on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather made it readily apparent that Canelo is not ready to defeat him.
If these two were to meet, Canelo, who is 42-0-1 with 30 knockouts, would have to try and maximize his greatest advantage in this matchup: his strength.
Money showed how ineffective this tactic can be. As Yahoo! Sports' Kevin Iole tweets, Guerrero would've preferred a brawl and he was trying to overpower Mayweather.
Now, Canelo is a more physical boxer than Guerrero and he definitely hits harder, but that doesn't change the fact that Mayweather is well equipped to handle this strategy. He moves so well at the waist in close quarters, that it really doesn't matter when a fighter does get inside.
In fact, with Mayweather's amazing counterpunching, opponents often wind up regretting that they did, and Canelo would. He is far too easy to hit.
While his victory over Trout was an exciting performance, Canelo showed how vulnerable he is. Trout throws a lot of jabs, so he is always going to land a lot of punches.
Still, the fact that Trout landed 154 punches to Canelo's 124 does not bode well for a potential fight with Mayweather.
Canelo would always have the puncher's chance, and while he didn't knock out Trout, he did hand him the first knockdown of his career. He also landed numerous big shots.
However, Mayweather is far too hard to hit to rest on the strategy of a few big shots winning the fight.
Money would quickly frustrate Canelo, and pepper him with pot shots. Canelo would never be able to find a rhythm. Eventually, this would wear Canelo down, and Money would be in full control to close out the fight.
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