As Saul “Canelo” Alvarez finalizes his inner debate over who to fight next, one of boxing’s most honest voices says the real discussion should be over who the four-division champion won’t fight next.
“If he fights [Chris] Eubank [Jr.] or [Edgar] Berlanga … bro, come on man,” Pro Box TV analyst and Hall of Fame fighter Timothy Bradley Jr. said on Monday’s episode of “Deep Waters.”
“As great as Mayweather was, and what he did as ‘Pretty Boy,’ and leading up to the end of his career … everybody only looks at that – how he operated as a businessman. This is [beginning] for ‘Canelo’ Alvarez. We’re not getting the best possible fight out there. We want to see the [David] Benavidez fight.”
While Phoenix’s Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) has waited more than two years as Alvarez’s top-ranked WBC contender and taken two fights while sitting as his mandatory opponent, Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) has fought two consecutive recent 154-pound titleholders in Jermell Charlo and Jaime Munguia.
And now he is believed to be close to choosing between unbeaten WBA mandatory Berlanga or middleweight Eubank.
“You’re holding the straps hostage,” Bradley said of Alvarez. “I’m letting y’all know right now – Canelo’s got a yellow stripe running down his damn back. Yes, he does people. You know what that means – he’s soft.
“Canelo is soft. Step up and face a real fighter in Benavidez. Someone who has rightfully earned his spot – someone who wants that world championship that you have.”
Alvarez, who turns 34 on Thursday, selected England’s John Ryder for a homecoming fight in Mexico before Charlo, and beat up the aging Gennady Golovkin before that to close their trilogy.
None of the bouts have included a knockout, and each offered predictable outcomes.
Who would pick Berlanga or Eubank, who have never been champions, over Canelo?
“We can say it won’t tarnish your legacy,” Bradley said. “Yeah, at the end of the day, it is going to tarnish your legacy. With me, it is, because I’m saying, ‘Wait, hold up, you’re supposed to be a pound-for-pound great? But you don’t want to fight this guy to prove you’re a pound-for-pound great? As a champion?’
“I have a problem with that. And I’m not going to shut up about it.”
Should Alvarez go to England to fight England’s Eubank, ProBox TV analyst Paulie Malignaggi said the bout “would sell out Wembley [Stadium] in a minute,” although it might hurt the pay-per-view sales in the U.S. because the fight would be going head to head with college football.
“That’s an easy sell, that’s why they’re biding their time … Canelo does what he wants, moving the way he wants to move,” said fellow ProBox TV analyst Chris Algieri. “They know they have a British fan base ready to go.
“If they choose Berlanga, they’ve got to move away from Las Vegas, away from the [Sept. 14] UFC [show at The Sphere].”