Alvarez Believed His Own Hype
It is no secret that the job of a good promoter is to nurture and protect a fighter who has the potential to become a big star. Saul Alvarez’s relationship with Golden Boy Promotions is an excellent example.
His earlier fights with Golden Boy, after moving up to Light Middleweight, were with Welterweights. Carlos Baldomir, Alfonso Gomez, and Mathew Hatton were all Welterweights before fighting Alvarez.
Golden Boy’s clout in the boxing world allowed him to win a world title at Light Middleweight by fighting opponents who were smaller and often much older than he was. His fight with Josesito Lopez, who a year before was fighting at Light Welterweight, was hardly any competition for Alvarez.
However, this all changed when Alvarez fought Austin Trout. It was his first test against a true Light Middleweight who was young, skillful, and undefeated. Alvarez proved to live up to his own hype and passed the test with flying colors, although he was unable to knock Trout out.
It is after his fight with Trout that we can say that Alvarez got ahead of himself. His ability to defend Trout’s offense easily with his head movement—in essence, his ability to outbox Trout—allowed him to believe that he could do the same to Mayweather.
Golden Boy Promotions and its ability to hype a fighter may have also contributed to this. Alvarez is a young fighter with a huge following, but his game plan in the Mayweather fight demonstrates that he is not ready to be pound-for-pound king. Believing he could outbox Mayweather was foolish.
