Canelo Alvarez says he’s going to fight four times in 2022 with one of them being a “big fight.” Alvarez has fallen short of providing the boxing public big fights for the last three years since his mega-clash with Gennady Golovkin.
If only one of Canelo’s four fights in 2022 will be a BIG one, hopefully, it’s against David Benavidez or Artur Beterbiev. Those guys bring a lot more to the table than Jermall Charlo, who looked terrible in getting repeatedly hurt by his last opponent Juan Macias Montiel last June. Picking Charlo as an opponent for his “big fight” in 2022 would be another opportunist/cherry-picking move by Canelo.
Fighting four times in 2022 sounds good, as long as Canelo is going to face worthy opposition. Fans are worn out from watching Canelo beat up on guys like Avni Yildirim and the weak foreign champions at 168 that he’s been defeating one after another.
Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) has spent the last three years from 2018 unifying the 168 lb division by beating Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, and Billy Joe Saunders.
None of those mismatches came close to fitting the description of a “big fight’ and you can say the same thing about Canelo’s next fight against IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant on November 6th. That’s not a big fight, at least not in this writers’ estimation.
True “big fight’ opponents for Canelo:
1. David Benavidez
2. Artur Beterbiev
3. Dmitry Bivol
4. Joe Smith Jr.
5. Gennadiy Golovkin
6. David Morrell Jr.
7. Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez
8. Joshua Buatsi
9. Zhanibek Alimkhanuly
“Next year I want to fight four times. We’ll see what’s at the table [after this], but I promise you it’ll be worth it and a big fight,” said Canelo to the Complex.
Canelo rips Ryan Garcia
“Look, Ryan has a lot of talent. But to me in my eyes, he’s wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent,” Canelo said of Ryan Garcia. “I look at him and don’t see him 100 percent dedicated and, to us, that’s a bad signal.
“We always remind him as a team to come to the gym, to train, and to learn because you need to be in the gym.
“You’re learning day-by-day, at the very minimum fighting five times a year.
“When I was beginning my career, I did 15 fights in one year. That’s where I was at the beginning of my career. So definitely he needs to be a little more dedicated,” Canelo said of wanting Ryan Garcia to show more dedication to his career.
The 23-year-old Ryan (21-0, 18 KOs) has made a bunch of money already in his career, and he doesn’t have the incentive to work hard to try and improve so he can win a world title. Ryan has fought only once in 2021, and it wouldn’t be surprising if we only see him fighting once in 2022 as well.
Canelo has been in the game long enough to identify fighters that lack dedication. He’s obviously seen a lot of fighters drift in and out of his trainer Eddy Reynoso’s gym and not put in the effort needed for them to get the most out of their careers.
I don’t know why Canelo is even bothering to worry about Ryan Garcia, as he’s shown repeatedly that he’s not for real.
The way that Ryan Garcia turned down a title shot against WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney earlier this year after beating Luke Campbell in a WBC-ordered title eliminator tells you all you need to know about King Ry.
I know it’s troubling for Canelo to watch Ryan go through the motions in a superficial way with his boxing career, but he should have already recognized the telltale signs of a guy that isn’t dedicated to the sport after watching him choose not to challenge Haney for his WBC title.
Would Canelo put in the time and effort into fighting in a title eliminator and then opt not to take the fight. I don’t think so.