Canelo Alvarez – The Scourge of Britain
When boxing historians look back at the 2010s of boxing, the names that will immediately leap out are Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquaio, and Canelo Alvarez. Unfortunately, Mayweather and Pacquiao may have reached their peak in the noughties and fought too late in their careers, diminishing the stature and excitement surrounding their “fight of the century” in 2015.
While Canelo Alvarez dominated the latter parts of the 2010s and is considered the face of the sport, Floyd Mayweather was a colossal name, and a considerable crossover star that features in many year-end rich lists, fully living up to his moniker of Money Mayweather. His lavish lifestyle supplements the “Money” nickname, and even though he has been retired, choosing to fight a range of exhibition bouts for enormous sums of cash, his displays of wealth have been criticized as grandiose. Still, they fit his character, and he was the only man to beat Canelo for nearly a decade.
Whether he is a high-roller in the casino, placing multi-million dollar sports bets, or flashing his incredible range of luxury watches, each individually valued in the multi-million dollar range, he likes to live ostentatiously. Mayweather’s betting history is well-known, and while he sticks to sports betting mostly, budding markets like eSports might stimulate some of his interest in the future.
Emerging markets where you can bet on the outcome of professional sporting events are proving to be one of the most popular markets. You can find specific eSports markets for games like Counter-Strike here https://thunderpick.io/en/esports/csgo, as well as a whole host of other betting markets like League Of Legends.
Anyone who placed a bet on Mayweather during his career would have watched many of his fights with a broad smile. This includes the Canelo fight, which he entered as a marginal favorite. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the conveyer belt of Brits that have felt the path of the marvelous Mexican.
Canelo vs. British Boxing
The current scorecard of Canelo against British boxers is a convincing eight wins to zero. It’d be hard to rank who gives Canelo the best fight, as he has dominated every fighter he’s faced from Britain.
He blasted out Ryan Rhodes earlier in his career and made extremely short work of Rocky Fielding, the third scouser Canelo has faced. On paper, Matthew Hatton gave Canelo the best run for his money. Although Amir Khan, Billy Joe Saunders, and Liam Smith all give solid accounts of themselves for a few rounds, as soon as the Mexican put his foot down, he stopped them all.
Matthew Hatton fought a much younger, greener version of the Mexican. Although thoroughly outboxed over 12 rounds, the iron-chinned Mancunian didn’t look in danger of being stopped.
If you’re to make a case for Liam Smith, he matched fire with fire at times and landed some great shots, and Smith, who has a solid chin himself, was stopped with a series of sickening body shots. His brother Callum faired slightly better and lasted the distance but was criticized for a gunshy approach, even though his bicep was detached for a lot of the bout, and he managed to hear the final bell.
Amir Khan was ahead on one of the scorecards going into the sixth round before being subject to a horrific knockout. How Amir Khan was allowed to compete at middleweight or why the fight was sanctioned are two big questions the authorities should have asked themselves, as Amir could have been permanently damaged by the much larger man, who has failed drug tests in the past, too.
Who’s Next?
Who knows if Canelo has another Brit in his sights before he retires? Suppose he moves up to light-heavyweight to fight Dmitry Bivol again. In that case, several British fighters are currently in the top 10 in the division.
Maybe a rematch against Callum Smith is on the cards if he can get past Beterbiev? Likewise, if Dan Azeez, the European light-heavyweight London-based champion, can chalk up a few wins at the world level, maybe he could be in with a shot. Anthony Yarde, perhaps?
You wouldn’t blame Canelo if he’s had enough of decimating British fighters. Of course, after the Bivol rematch and a potential mega showdown with David Benavidez, you’d imagine nothing left for him to accomplish in the sport, so maybe his current total of eight will be his final standing amount.
Conclusion
Most recently, Canelo took on tough and resilient Londoner John Ryder, and although John lasted the 12 rounds, he had his nose badly broken early on. He was also on the canvas but gave a better account of himself than other British fighters.
You’d have to spend a long time trawling history books to find a dominant world champion who has beaten this many British fighters, and his title as the destroyer of Brits is a well-earned moniker, unfortunately.