Canelo Alvarez goes into the blockbuster against Terence Crawford as the favorite. But quite a few people are asking themselves: Is Canelo still his old self – or has he passed his peak? His recent performances confirm the suspicion.
There was a time when Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was the measure of all things in boxing. In November 2019, for example, when the cinnamon head turned the legs of long-time light heavyweight ruler Sergey Kovalev into jelly with a left hook in Las Vegas and knocked the Russian down with a right hand. Or a year later, when the Mexican beat the arms of the 20 centimeter taller Callum Smith so badly that the Brit could barely defend himself properly, let alone punch.
Did the Canelo wave break here?
The Canelo show reached its climax in mid-2021. At the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Alvarez beat his cheeky super-middleweight rival Caleb Plant by technical knockout in round eleven and unified all the major world championship belts in the 76.2 kilogram limit. In retrospect, was this triumph the point at which the Canelo wave broke and slowly receded? The fact that Alvarez conceded a narrow points defeat to light heavyweight world champion Dmitry Bivol in May 2022 was neither a blemish nor proof in view of his extra class. The fact that he has not beaten an opponent early since his victory against Plant is more so.
Certainly, Canelo finally deserved to win the rubber match against his long-time arch-rival Gennadiy Golovkin in the fall of 2022. But what followed on “Cinco de Mayo” a year later against underdog John Ryder raised doubts …
Text: Martin Armbruster
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