[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered”]The powerful and the strong are not always what they seem—Malcolm Gladwell[/otw_shortcode_quote]
It has become quite clear now that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has no intention of facing the best fighters at Middleweight and will do his best in order to hold his lineal title hostage for as long as he possibly can. The WBC allowed Canelo to face another fighter in lieu of his mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin in order to become accustomed to facing 160-pound fighters, but now Golden Boy Promotions has come out of the woodwork with a fight for Canelo that provides him very little risk and very big reward as he will fight Amir Khan on May 7 in Las Vegas at a catch weight of 155 pounds.
Khan has never fought above 147 pounds. He has been wobbled by groundball hitters such as Chris Algieri and Devon Alexander, and was slaughtered by the 140-pound Danny Garcia. Khan may be a good boxer with some of the fastest hands in his division but he has no chin. The second that Canelo connects with a wild left hook, the fight will be over. Khan knows it and so does Canelo.
This fight was made for two reasons: the money and the names.
Canelo is the biggest box office draw in boxing today. Khan is one of the biggest box office draws in the United Kingdom and has a sizable amount of name recognition in the states. Given the pay-per-view numbers of Canelo’s last fight against Miguel Cotto, which broadcast to roughly 900,000 televisions, one can give a far estimate that this pay-per-view will do at least 750,000 buys accounting for the fact that Khan is not as big of a name as Cotto is in America.
A minimum of 750,000 pay-per-view buys and a big knockout win for Canelo is plenty for Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions to establish themselves as the kings of cash in boxing today.
De La Hoya’s company doesn’t have any other big name stars in their stable, so they can’t risk a loss for Canelo, especially to someone like Golovkin who is a much smaller box office draw but is someone who has the personality to subjugate Canelo as the biggest cash cow in boxing.
This is a fight that is deceiving to the average fan. An average fan knows who Canelo is and an average fan knows who Khan is. When they hear that those two names are going to fight each other, the average fan will believe that this is a must buy pay-per-view, and when the average fan sees Canelo knock Khan out, they’ll believe that Canelo is some unstoppable force that won’t be beaten.
The average fan won’t see that Khan is jumping up two whole weight classes to make this fight. They won’t see that Canelo has created his own weight class at 155 in order to hold belts and lineal titles hostage from deserving challengers. They won’t see that this is a lose-lose for all involved parties’ legacies.
If Canelo doesn’t score a knockout in this fight, there will be questions about his punching power and ability to deal with agile fighters. If Canelo knocks Khan out in two rounds, he’ll be seen as someone who goes out of his way to pick on smaller fighters. If Canelo loses, he’ll have to deal with having lost to a much smaller fighter and his reputation and box office momentum will be tarnished.
If Khan loses by knockout to someone as big as Canelo, he could have years taken off of his career. He’s already taken a number of beatings in the ring and he doesn’t need his brain rattled any further. There are a number of fights for him at welterweight with Garcia and Kell Brook. A fight with Canelo is only good for a paycheck and a concussion.
Khan furthermore has next to no chance of winning by decision. Floyd Mayweather Jr. outboxed Canelo for 12 rounds and made the cinnamon-topped big man look silly, yet one of the judges scored the bout a draw. In Canelo’s most recent fights, a number of ringside observers felt that Cotto put the early rounds in the bank only for Canelo to come on in the second half and win by either 8-4 or 7-5. When the scorecards were read, there was a glaring 11-1 in favor of Canelo. For whatever reason, judges favor Canelo, and Khan will have to keep that in mind going into the bout.
In the most recent episode of Paulie Malignaggi’s podcast, “From Brooklyn to the World,” Malignaggi compared this fight to playing with action figures as a kid. You can have Hulk fight Captain America as action figures, but it would be no contest in real life. These are real people involved in a dangerous sport. Weight classes exist for a reason, and David doesn’t always beat Goliath.
Photo edit by Liam Brady Media
