Left-Hook Lounge: Is ‘Canleo’ Ready For Mayweather, and Could Cotto Be Next?

Reggie B. (Dallas, TX): I’m still not sold on Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. I don’t think Trout fought his best fight. Do you think Canelo is ready for a Mayweather fight?

Vivek W. (ESB): I have to be honest and very direct in saying that I simply feel people just aren’t ready to give Saul Alvarez credit. Coming into this fight I knew that Trout would have to be at his best and that he would need to execute somewhat flawlessly to even have a shot. Despite his activity rate, he didn’t do any damage, and furthermore, he didn’t do enough to truly seize the victory from Canelo. I think we have to be honest in saying that the deck was already stacked against him – in the sense that Canelo was the house fighter. It was Mexican “Fiesta” weekend in San Antonio, Canelo is the bigger name and the international name, and despite Trout’s victory over Cotto, Canelo was the one who carried the promotion.

San Antonio, TX finished its eventful boxing week on 04/20/13 Saturday night in front of nearly 40,000 fans at the Alamodome. The televised bouts of the Showtime Championship Boxing telecast included two fights that showed the reason why the fans came out to pack the venue.

The co-main event included a 1st round domination by Omar “Panterita” Figueroa, Jr. over Puerto Rican Abner Cotto. The thrilling first round included a knockdown of Abner Cotto halfway through the round. That exciting moment led to a culmination of the fight with “Panterita’s” vicious left hand body shot that sent Cotto to the ground towards the end of the round. Cotto was unable to survive the body shot as the referee completed a full ten count. This was definitely Figueroa’s coming out party as one of the rising stars in the lighter weights.

2013 New Jersey Golden Glove Finals Results

This past Saturday night for the second year in a row The New Jersey Golden Gloves Finals were held at Newark’s Prudential Center Arena. The winners in these contests move up to representing New Jersey in the National Golden Gloves Tournament. The evening’s program consisted of 14 bouts. These bouts as per amateur boxing standards are three rounds of 2 minutes per round. The enthusiasm and heart of these young athletes provided rousing entertainment. There were numerous boxing celebrities in attendance.

To a large extent, it must be emphasised that the recent fight between Fury and Cunningham, was highly enjoyable; a fight that showed Tyson’s potential future world title challenge as most likely being an engaging fight but more likely than not, one that he will not win.

The brash Fury is quickly emerging as one of the more colourful characters of boxing, with trash talking, boasts of greatness and some might say bizarre antics, i.e. the singing at the end of the fight. Additionally some argue that this route is not working for the fans, I have to say that these statements are largely untrue. Although Fury perhaps looked like a clown and foolish in these instances, I feel it will only make him more memorable and will enable him to get the bigger paydays. This route has been utilized ever since Ali who became an icon with it, to the more recent and possibly offensive David Haye who managed to shortcut his way to a heavyweight title and fight with Wladmir, without having to take unnecessary punches in normal mandatory matches. Ultimately boxing fans want to be engaged and it is through making yourself distinguishable from the pack that this is possible. It is overwhelmingly obvious for this writer, that it is not just Fury’s name that makes him stand out but it is also these antics, his in ring bravado, his monstrous height and his vulnerabilities.

Canelo Alvarez – Austin Trout Recap

The best way to score a boxing match would probably be to have each fighter begin the event by punching all three judges (jabs, uppercuts, straights, hooks, etc.) to aid the judges in answering the mythical question hanging over every fight of punch valuation—how many of fighter A’s jabs equal an uppercut of fighter B, etc.. Now, there are many practical concerns with enacting such a policy—for example, who will judge the fight should the judges get knocked out? So, absent that, the next most logical way seems to be to simply watch how each fighter responds to other’s punches—thereby sorting out not only when a punch is thrown, but whether it lands in a clean, effective manner. Fortunately, the human body reacts in predictable ways when struck with clean, effective punches—knees buckle, the head gets snapped back, the body is staggered, or in some cases knocked down.

The Canelo Alvarez—Austin Trout tilt from Saturday night bears, according to some, the “controversial” label, but it shouldn’t. Though Alvarez found his target less frequently than Trout (124 versus 154 in total punches landed), he clearly landed more of the clean, effective punches described in the above paragraph—and if you didn’t see that then you either didn’t watch the whole fight, are one of the two judges who somehow thought Chavez swung-and-missed his way to a draw with Whitaker a decade ago, or got distracted trying to figure out if Trout has a Mohawk or just a receding hairline that looks like a Mohawk—while Trout held a decisive edge in insignificant punches landed (the kind where the guy getting hit doesn’t react or seem to care).

Alvarez Shows New Side in Win Over Trout

The slick boxing Trout did what he was supposed to do. In front of 40,000 plus fans at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas, he controlled the distance and pace with his jab. He mixed it up, going often to the body. He threw more punches, displayed better combination punching, but he still lost the fight! How could that happen?

It happened because Saul “Canelo” Alvarez impressed a lot of people, including the judges, that he’s a pretty damn good defensive fighter as well as an aggressive one. Several times, Trout ripped off four and five punch combinations, and none landed. Then, just enough times, Canelo would land one of his sharper, more powerful shots. When his shots landed, they had an obvious effect on Trout, and would shake him from his shoe laces to the sweat on his brow. One particularly impressive shot occurred early into the seventh round. Trout carelessly threw out a rather soft jab from his southpaw stance, and Canelo followed it back with a sharp, straight right. Canelo’s punch landed right on the chin. It took Trout’s body a fraction of a second to react, but once it did, it resulted in an awkward little dance, which ended with “No Doubt” on the canvas.

Fury/Cunningham: Keep it between the Ropes

fury14 Before the fight with Steve Cunningham, Tyson Fury showed all of the tact and rhetorical artistry usually found in the boys locker room of a local high school when he told the world of his greatness. During the fight he pounded his chest in the ring like a baboon and shoved Cunningham after the round to give us further evidence of his greatness. And after the fight, Fury took the microphone hostage and treated us to a ballad by Ricky Van Shelton (it being well known the popularity of country music in New York City) so that we would have no doubt that we were witnessing greatness.

The unfortunate thing is that Fury is not great. The reflection Fury sees of himself is not the same one that the boxing public sees. While his accomplishments have been good they have not been great, and while his style has been crudely effective it has obvious flaws. There is as much wrong with the 6’9 former amateur champion as there is right. This heavyweight Narcissus is blind to the fact that he has not proven anything great in the ring.

“There’s Not A Man Born From His Mother Who Can Beat Me!” ~ Tyson Fury

Born in 1988, named after Mike Tyson, standing just four inches short of seven feet and fighting at weights in excess of 250 pounds, Tyson Fury is a mountain yet to be conquered. He came to the US with his nephew Hughie Fury and the two of them crushed their opponents just like he said they would. During pre-fight press meetings his words were no nonsense and his temper seemed hardly controlled at selected times but make no mistake about Tyson Fury: he is not acting.

Tyson Fury will get annihlated by either of the Klitschko brothers. He demonstrated very little in the way of boxing skills against Cunningham. Instead, he used his tremendous 6′ 9″ size advantage to mug his much smaller foe. On a 0-10 talent scale, boxing fans would be hard pressed to give him a score that would crack mid point. His bellowing, and worse yet his post-fight singing, completely turned off fans at Madison Square Garden Theater. His actions failed to generate any great desire in fans to rush out and buy a ticket to see him fight Vitali or Wladimir. That’s because fans know any such matchup will result in a reverberating quake picked up on the Richter Scale that will result when his big body crashes to the canvas.

Saturday night fans couldn’t help but feel sorry for Steve Cunningham. He wasn’t on the losing end of the seventh round stoppage, so much as he was a victim of a back alley New York City mugging. Tyson did so much pushing, shoving, elbowing and leaning on his smaller foe that Referee Eddie Cotton couldn’t keep track of all of the offenses. He needed a “clicker” to keep count of all of the fouls.

Alvarez and Cleverley ascend the ladder, the right way

In an era of ever-increasing hype, where hollow records earn title shots and fans watch in exasperation as fighters spend much of their careers more intent on avoiding each other than testing themselves, two fighters last night demonstrated the right way to go about building a career.

In the very definition of a high risk, low reward fight, Canelo Alvarez pounded out a tough, close but clear points win over Austin Trout in a fight that should surely raise the reputation of both fighters. Alvarez’s rapid rise, at the age of just twenty-two, to dual world title holder has not been without its critics, with lacklustre performances against relatively limited opponents such as Alfonso Gomez and Matthew Hatton leading many to question his ability to adapt to opponents who do more than simply stand in front of him.