Canelo Alvarez puts Mayweather loss far behind him in win over Angulo

Many people were curious about how Canelo Alvarez (43-1-1) would respond in his first fight back following the only loss of his career back in September to Floyd Mayweather. He answered those questions Saturday night against Alfredo Angulo (22-4) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV. Alvarez scored his 31st knockout in the tenth round after Tony Weeks stopped the fight following a vicious left-hand uppercut that sent Angulo backwards. The packed crowd of 14,610 people voiced their displeasure with the stoppage since Angulo was still protecting himself and throwing punches.

To the contrary, although I would have liked to see more punches thrown, I did not have a problem with the stoppage. I am an Angulo fan because of his style and heart; however, he took a beating for the entire fight of which I had a hard time giving him even the eighth round which all three judges at ringside had awarded him. I disagree with Virgil Hunter’s support of his fighter that he was “coming on strong.” In my opinion, Tony Weeks only prevented a more brutal knockout later in the tenth or eleventh round. Alvarez had landed 64% of his power punches and 58% of his punches overall compared to 14% overall for Angulo. There was no need for Angulo to take any further punishment. Anytime he hit Alvarez with a power shot, he was hit in return with three or four more.

Even with the loss, Angulo will be awarded some good fight opportunities in the future. He will live on to fight another day and he did not lose any fans in his loss to Alvarez, who is considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world. That said, let’s talk about Canelo. He was an impressive and overwhelming force in this fight. He may have lost six months ago to the best fighter in the world in Mayweather, but that may have been the best thing to happen so far in his young career. Who can surprise Canelo now or give him a more difficult fight than Mayweather? Although Angulo was tailor made for Canelo, he is a very tough and formidable fighter who causes most fighters problems.

Unfortunately for Angulo, he looked like a junior varsity athlete against a star varsity athlete in this fight. At times, it even looked as if Canelo took some of the devensive ring savvy of Mayweather with how he rolled with Angulo’s power punches on the ropes throughout the fight. I will say one thing for sure, Canelo did not look like a 23 year old fighter, and consequently for his future opponents, he is still several years from his prime.

Canelo may not be the best in the world right now, but he is close to being mentioned in that conversation; although it will take a couple more fights with top ranked contenders or champions to prove it. I am not sure how long he will last at junior middleweight though, given he had to come into this one at 155 pounds and pay Angulo $100,000 for not making the 154 pound weight limit. Canelo looked like a light heavyweight on Saturday, similar to Chavez Jr. who I think could be a very interesting opponent for Canelo Alvarez further down the road.

Outside of Chavez Jr., I would love to see him fight the winner of Cotto vs. Martinez (taking place in June in New York) as a more immediate fight. Further down the road, I would like to see a fight with Gennady Golovkin whose April fight against Andy Lee was cancelled due to the unfortunate death of Golovkin’s father. Subsequently, according to the Los Angeles Times five days ago, there are now talks of a fight between Chavez Jr. and Golovkin for July at the Forum in Los Angeles.

As for Canelo, it does not matter who promoters put him in the ring with or what weight class he moves to, he will fill the seats and he will win in his quest for another championship belt.