Canelo-Chavez Jr.: Boxing’s 2017 practical joke
After categorically refusing to face Gennady Golovkin at the middleweight limit, Canelo Alvarez will move up to 164.5 pounds to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a lucrative, albeit insulting, matchup.
Before Canelo Alvarez scored an impressive win over Miguel Cotto to become the lineal and WBC middleweight champion, it was virtually impossible to deny the red-headed Mexican with matinee idol looks was in any way a detriment to boxing. After all, Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) had proven his worth in substantive bouts against Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout — dangerous opponents with nominal financial upside.
Sandwiched between the Trout and Lara wins was a lopsided loss (delusional scorecards aside) to Floyd Mayweather Jr., but Canelo, who was in his early 20s at the time, could hardly be blamed for cashing in. If anything, the decision to face Mayweather, a vastly superior boxer, accomplished two important things: it showed gumption and further cemented Alvarez’s status as a major draw willing to take tough fights. It also helped him become an even more bankable commodity.
Fast forward to 2015: Canelo-Cotto was a desirable matchup in many respects, and one fans had been hoping to see for some time. That, combined with a mini Cotto resurgence, made the aging Puerto Rican an intriguing test for Canelo, who passed with aplomb.
What has followed since then, though, is an insulting campaign of deception that has, unfortunately, dramatically eroded Canelo’s esteem in the eyes of many fans. This was made even more glaring during 2016, a decidedly horrid year for boxing, where Alvarez faced the glass-chinned former 140-pound champion Amir Khan and the brave but limited Liam Smith back at 154 pounds.
Meanwhile, Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions kept insisting that rising to 160 pounds had to be done methodically. Fair enough. But then there was also the matter of Canelo’s boisterous barking at Golovkin after knocking Khan out, which, predictably, included no bite. Oh, and who could forget that odd flat offer that Golovkin rejected?
When news broke that Alvarez would fight nearly 10 pounds heavier than he ever had to secure a gargantuan pay check against the slothful Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the fight was greeted with perplexed scorn. Essentially, it completely undermined Team Canelo’s reasoning for delaying the Golovkin fight, while blatantly confirming what everyone knew: Alvarez is already a robust 160-pounder.
According to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, the other realistic option for a May fight was WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders, a far more intriguing matchup and one that would have made for an ideal segue to a Golovkin bout. Had Canelo defeated Saunders and Golovkin dispatched of Daniel Jacobs, they could have met in September for, quite literally, all the middleweight marbles.
Obviously a Saunders fight isn’t nearly as lucrative for Canelo as one against Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs). But at what point does greed trump legacy, especially given the incessant talk from Alvarez and his camp about being remembered as an all-time great?
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez also had a peculiar justification for Canelo’s willingness to rise so dramatically in weight (per Rafael): “‘This fight transcends weights and championships,’ Gomez said. ‘It’s probably the biggest fight in Mexican history.'”
Hardly. What this justification reflects is the confusion of lucrative/marketable with genuine historic significance — an unfortunate trend in this age of boxing defined by Mayweather and his brand-is-greater-than-legacy mindset. As an actual fight, Canelo-Chavez Jr. will likely feature compelling but ultimately one-sided action; the plodding, defensively deficient Chavez Jr. should be a sitting duck for Alvarez. And there’s also the reality that Chavez Jr. even struggles to make the super middleweight limit.
Alvarez and his team find themselves at a point where if they didn’t hide their intentions behind a veil of false sincerity, you could actually forgive some of their decisions. Fighters should maximize their earning potential given boxing’s brutal nature, but the deplorable angle of all this comes when fans are expected to swallow outright lies and are treated as mindless serfs.
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Canelo-Chavez Jr. will sell out a massive stadium. It will likely feature pockets of torrid action. And it will be a significant event. However, to argue that this is anything other than a cash grab and spectacle does everyone a disservice. Hopefully Alvarez can impress again and then go back to being a truly substantive fighter. He’s more than capable, and boxing would be far better for it.