Bernard Hopkins says that if anyone criticizes Canelo Alvarez for his opponent selection, they’re a “serial hater.” He feels that Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has earned the right to pick his opponents at this point in his career.
It’s not as if Canelo has faced the best, as he seems to have backed off entirely from fighting elite fighters since his controversial win over Gennady Golovkin.
Whatever happened in that fight with Canelo has resulted in him seemingly picking flawed fighters ever since.
When you see Canelo choosing to fight Avni Yildirim or Caleb Plant rather than David Benavidez, you got to say something about it because it’s pretty obvious what he’s doing by selecting those guys.
Alvarez has taken a lot of heat for choosing to fight a lot of weak champions from England in the last three years instead of focusing on the dangerous fighters like David Benavidez, Demetrius Andrade, Gennady Golovkin, and David Morrell Jr.
The boxing fans that have criticized Canelo for fighting guys like Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim, and Rocky Fielding aren’t “serial haters.”
The fans who want to see Canelo focus on quality opposition weren’t impressed with his choice of opponents in the last three years fighting those guys.
Hopkins feels that Jermall Charlo is the only threat to beating Canelo right now instead of Benavidez, Dmitry Bivol, and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) has taken his fair share of criticism as well for the opposition that he’s faced since moving up to 160 in 2017, and there are many boxing fans that believe he’s been cherry-picking exclusively since moving up in weight from the 154-lb division.
“Canelo’s choices are what they are because he’s got the luxury right now,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fight Hub TV about Canelo Alvarez choosing to sign a two-fight deal with Matchroom and DAZN to fight Dmitry Bivol and Gennady Golovkin in 2022.
“Anybody that knocks his choices is being a serial hater,” said Hopkins in making it clear that it’s not okay to criticize Canelo’s choice of opponents. Otherwise, they’re a “serial hater,” in his opinion.
“At the same time, Canelo is unstoppable, and he’s a runaway train that is going so fast that anyone in his way, he’s running them over.
“That is what it is because he’s at a moment that I see right now and really the last two years where it’s going to be damn-near impossible [to beat Canelo]. There’s only one threat out there, Jermall Charlo.
“I think that style and Jermall is eager to show that he belongs. Listen, Canelo had to learn through Mayweather. Jermall Charlo wants to see if he’s ready for the pound-for-pound fighter, holding down two or three weight classes without breaking a sweat,” said Hopkins about Canelo.
“We’ll see what comes together in the next year or two,” said Hopkins.
The way that B-Hop rates Charlo so highly makes you wonder if he follows the sport closely enough to know who the quality fighters are in the 160, 168, and 175-lb divisions.
Jermall Charlo is arguably the worst of the top guys that Canelo could fight. Charlo is the weakest link, which is probably why Canelo wants to fight him.
Jermall is flawed, and we saw that clearly in his recent fights against Juan Macias Montiel, Matt Korobov, and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Korobov fought well enough to beat Charlo in the eyes of many boxing fans, and Montiel came close to stopping him.
Many boxing fans believe that the only reason Canelo didn’t agree to the two-fight deal from PBC recently is that the second fight involved him fighting David Benavidez.
The first fight would have been an easy one for Canelo against Jermall Charlo, but Benavidez’s match for the second one was likely the deal-killer.