By James Slater – 20-year-old Saul Alvarez, already a superstar in his native Mexico (where his promoter Oscar De La Hoya says, 80 million fans follow him!), scored the biggest and arguably most impressive win of his now 34-0-1(26) pro career on Saturday night in halting former 147-pound king Carlos Baldomir. Smashing the warrior known as “Tata” with a crunching left hand to the jaw in the 6th-round, “Canelo” stopped a man who had been stopped just once previously (this many years ago).
Okay, Baldomir is pushing 40 and he has been far from active recently, but the young prospect’s win has to be given respect. Really looking as though he could be THE best up-and-comer in all of boxing, the exciting, fast and powerful welterweight/light-middleweight leaves the fans wanting more.. The same can, of course, be said of the other hot prospects catching fire right now – the likes of James DeGale, George Groves, Frankie Gomez and others – but Alvarez, who has been stunningly active in his five years as a pro (at one point having as many as eight fights a year!) seems to have something special about him.
Knowing he has a future mega-star to work with, Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya wants to get his prize back into the ring soon. And although De La Hoya told the gathered media yesterday that Alvarez has to be slowed down, so eager is he to face the best right now, the plan is for “Canelo” to be back in action on December 4th, this time in Mexico. No opponent was mentioned for the next fight, but Oscar did say that “We want him to get the experience so that when he faces the Mayweathers and Pacquiao’s, we want him ready to win.”
The prospect of seeing Alvarez in with the elite names De La Hoya mentions is enough to get a fan salivating, even if deep down there is little chance of the youngster facing either “Money” or Pac-Man. Both guys will likely be retired (or, sadly, in prison in Floyd’s case) in the next year or two when Alvarez is ready for the biggest and the best. Right now, though, some fans are saying out loud how Alvarez is ready to take on and defeat the likes of WBC welterweight champ Andre Berto and former champ Shane Mosley.
Berto I’m not sure about, but basing things on how the two men looked on Saturday – with Alvarez blasting out Baldomir and Mosley struggling with Sergio Mora – I’d have to pick the 19-years younger man to prevail if Alvarez-Mosley did take place. It will be interesting to see which weight class Alvarez has settled into when he is ready to go for a world title. But either at 147 or at 154, this exciting young Mexican seems to have it in him to join the long list of greats from his country. Yes, we’ve had ‘sure-thing, can’t-miss’ prospects before, only to see them fall at top level.
Something tells me this won’t happen with “Canelo.”