There has been more said and written about who Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is not fighting this weekend than who he is.
The Mexican superstar has fended off repeated calls to meet David Benavidez, who has subsequently risen to light heavyweight, such was his frustration at failing to land a title shot at then-undisputed 168lbs king Canelo.
Canelo, of course, calls the shots. Whether you see him as the Face of Boxing, a new and somewhat onerous title, he is the sport’s leading money-maker and has been for several years. Even now, in his comparative dotage, the 34-year-old is able to call just about all of the shots.
His financial demands for a Benavidez fight are well-documented, as are his desires to face opponents who won’t heavily invest on retreating on fight night.
Following a lop-sided but tepid victory over Jermell Charlo last year, which left many inside the T-Mobile bored and frustrated, it seemed to have a similar effect on the red-headed icon.
Through the years Canelo has fought all styles, but now the Mexican has admitted he wants fighters to go to him. He no longer wants to make the running.
His style has changed subtly over the years, too. He’s not the patient threshing machine he was, rather a sniper who sits in range and takes shots. Economy and accuracy are two of his favored weapons.
“In all honesty, he has adapted,” said trainer SugarHill Steward. “Each fight he has, he’s learning something. You can clearly see that. Eventually, over time, every fighter has his or her day where they have to retire, it just becomes a sport for the younger person, and age catches up with everybody regardless of sport.
“He’s a more intelligent fighter [now]. When you’re young, you make mistakes. You do silly things, you take chances. As you get older, you become a smarter fighter. One of my prime examples is Bernard Hopkins. As he got older, he became much smarter and wiser. It’s the same as in life. All of the great fighters in history evolve as they’ve kept fighting and that’s what’s made them that great fighter.”
Some fighters are able to adapt as they grow old, with the likes of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman and Floyd Mayweather reinventing themselves. Others, like Mike Tyson, Shane Mosley and Matthew Saad Muhammad, kept trying to do what got them to the top, only to find that when their most potent gifts deserted them, in these cases power, speed and the ability to take a shot, they swiftly declined.
“I don’t think he’s declining as a fighter but I think he prefers certain styles,” said Eddie Hearn of Canelo, a man he’s promoted several times but a boxer he now hopes to beat with his client Edgar Berlanga on Saturday.
“That’s why I don’t think he’s mad on the [Terence] Crawford fight. I’ve spoken to him before in the past about it. He didn’t like the Charlo fight because Charlo ran for 12 rounds, and I think he feels like Crawford will just box on the back foot and use his agility and movement and I think probably physically Canelo’s not what he was, so he likes fighters that come to fight him. That’s why I think he liked the [Jaime] Munguia fight. That’s why I think he likes the Berlanga fight, because these guys are going to come to fight, and they’re not going to move and they’re not going to run.”
Berlanga has no plans to run. He’s an aggressive slugger who forges forward behind enthusiasm, ambition and pride. It is why he has got the lucrative gig, along with the Puerto Rican bloodline.
But the fight serves as another opportunity for Canelo to demonstrate how he has changed his style, by waiting for his moments, selecting his opportunities and trying to thread through the punches that will see him hammer out a decisive victory in Vegas.
Veteran cornerman Russ Anber is also a fight historian. He acknowledges the difference in Canelo’s approach as time goes on.
“I would say I didn’t see as much of a difference in Hopkins [adapting] as I do with Canelo,” Anber said. “Hopkins, in my opinion, maintained a solid technique and a solid style throughout his career and I think you can take any fights you want from Hopkins, from his early days to his championship days to his prime, his post-prime years and his style never really changed much.
“Of course, age kicked in. We have to remember, he fought until he was almost 50. But his basic style and technique never changed, never faltered from that. He proved how much a student of the game he was.
“He didn’t rely on any natural ability. He wasn’t overly fast. He wasn’t a one-punch knockout artist, so he had to adapt to a style and a technique that worked and he was very good at what he did. Canelo, on the other hand, I’ll make the comparison with him and Gennady Golovkin, and I think that’s one of the things that hurt Golovkin later in his career as he started to age and as he started to gain more experience and he started to be in what you’d perhaps call that more economical style of fighting. He started becoming a one-punch fighter and got away from throwing combinations and brutalizing you. It was all one punch at a time. He’d load up with shots and, if you remember, Canelo when they fought [the third time] was able to outhustle him a little bit at times because he was the one doing the counter-punching and doing the combination punching. So I see Canelo doing a lot of the same thing now, in that he’s just looking at bombing away. He’s very economical, he gets into position and then he explodes with what has to be considered devastating power. He is a brutal puncher. He certainly hurts you. He might not be Joe Louis, but he certainly can hurt you.”
Anber has witnessed the destruction first hand, notably when he cornered Callum Smith against the Mexican. Smith was battered over 12 rounds, with Canelo banging away at the tall Liverpudlian’s high guard in 2020 to such an extent that he damaged the muscles in Smith’s arms.
“He just busted that arm up and you could hear the impact, it was literally the way he is when he’s hitting a bag, you could hear that power,” said Anber. “And Callum was doing well to defend against it, but his arm took a massive beating and he destroyed that bicep. I think he has become a far more economical fighter, but I think the key in all this, I think he has borrowed the page from Mayweather.”
Of course, Canelo was a different fighter altogether when he boxed Mayweather in September 2013. That night, a rampant Mayweather exhibited his full bag of tricks and decisively outscored Canelo (aside from one ridiculous scorecard), who was left looking forlorn and dejected by his own inability to change the pattern of the fight.
But what Canelo has now that Mayweather had then was the ability to pick and choose who he fought; how, when and at what weight. That is what Anber is referring to. Canelo’s command of the negotiating table as well as the ring canvas.
“He’s decided he’s going to control boxing,” said Anber. “He’ll pick and choose who he wants to fight. He’s the Face of Boxing, the rules don’t apply to him, he can pick who he wants and nobody’s going to do anything about it. I guess he’s earned that, you might say that.”
But Anber has plenty of respect for this version of Canelo as a fighter. It is not an easy thing, to mould your skills and style around waning attributes.
“It’s very difficult to adapt, to be able to change your style,” admitted Anber. “You have to be truly gifted to be able to do that. Mayweather never really changed his style, his style remained the same, he was just perhaps more economical, picked his moments better, picked his spots better, his punch numbers would drop off…
“Mosley boxed the same style. Did his speed go? Of course it did. Everybody’s natural ability – except punchers, punchers seem to get away with it for a little bit longer, because they can still punch – but once that natural gift that you have leaves you, you’re never the same. You’re never what you were. But that’s normal.”
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SugarHill agrees that it takes a certain type of fighter to reinvent themselves and still box at the highest level.
“Some fighters, they can learn what you teach them right away, and some fighters it may take a year for them to learn that, to digest that, to take what they’ve learned and put it on hold and say, ‘Hold on, I want to learn this right now. Forget everything else.’ It’s not the easiest thing to do. It’s difficult, to take something, to learn something new at an older age,” said the Detroit coach.
“At some point in time, he’s going to get to that point in life where he can’t do what he used to do, where he can’t compete as he used to, and obviously you make adjustments through the course of your life. You don’t go around doing the same things you used to do. That wouldn’t be growth in life. It’s the same for boxing and it’s the same for any sport.
“When things don’t work for you the way they used to because you’re young, you get older, you get smarter, you know how to make adjustments, you learn how to adapt. Everybody’s different, but Canelo has been able to make those adjustments.”
What is crucial, however, is that by the time the years start to advance, there is nothing more useful than sound fundamentals, and Canelo certainly has those dialled in.
“Correct,” agreed Anber. “And defense as well. It allows you to stay in the game a lot longer, as well.
“That’s why you can give Canelo the credit that he deserves, because he is very good. He’s a very good defensive fighter. His fundamentals are not that of a Bernard Hopkins. He’s not textbook in what he does. It’s kind of a unique style to him, but his defensive abilities, his head movement, his ability to judge range and distance is phenomenal. And he still has the power.”
His intelligence, too, allows the Mexican great to set traps and make his opponents often reluctant adversaries once they have sampled his ability to counterpunch, both to the head and body.
“Even when you get a beginner in the gym, if every time you’re trying to teach him something and you’re giving him the right instructions, you tell him to jab, he jabs and he gets hit,” explained Anber. “You tell him to throw the right hand, he throws the right hand and he gets hit. A beginner will never flourish if every time they try to do something they get hit – and then they quit boxing. It’s no different for the pros. When you learn you can go in there and you can control the punches that are coming at you and you are not getting hit and your defense is beyond reproach, suddenly your offense improves tenfold. You become a better fighter automatically.”
Whether this is peak Canelo or not, it is not necessarily a fighter in decline just yet. Hearn, of course, is friends with Canelo, and clearly admires him.
“I don’t necessarily think he’s declining as a fighter,” said Hearn. “I think he’s being more efficient with his work. I don’t think he likes fights against guys that are going to be trying to be slick and moving, and I think that’s why the Crawford fight doesn’t really appeal to him.”
Canelo likes a challenge, but increasingly so on his terms. That is a widely critiqued approach and it does nothing to quieten the support for David Benavidez, but there is still plenty to admire about what Canelo does in the ring, even if it is not against the rivals that are likely to present a fresh set of problems for him.