MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Canelo Alvarez Resume Review | Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

The Resume Review is BACK! Will the curse continue? Luke and Brian break down Canelo Alvarez's incredible career ahead of his Showtime PPV unification bout with Caleb Plant. How did Canelo become one of the biggest stars in boxing? You won't want to miss this break down of Canelo Alvarez's career. (3:20) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez (9:40) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Austin Trout (21:00) - Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez (29:40) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Erislandy Lara (35:30) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto (39:10) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin I (48:45) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin II (56:10) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Danny Jacobs (59:05) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev (62:20) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders (63:50) - Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant Preview Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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On Saturday, November 6th, Big Red is back in the building when the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the game and the sport's biggest star, Canelo Alvarez, returns to Las Vegas, returns to traditional pay-per-view, and returns to the Showtime family when he takes on Caleb Plant. Historic all four championships at 168 pounds, a undisputed title bout indeed.

I'm Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas of Morning Combat, here to set the stage on the journey and the road that it took one Canelo Alvarez to get to this point atop the world, atop the sport, Luke, but entering a very interesting matchup against Caleb Plant for that history I mentioned. Cinnamon is back, and he is trying to do something at 168 pounds that has literally never been done before

against an opponent like Caleb Plant, who some believe might be the guy to stop him in his tracks. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. As Brian indicated, we're here to talk about the man who has developed into the position that he finds himself in on November 6th. So this is how we do it on Morning Combat. You know our three-day-a-week, 11 a.m. Eastern time show.

We're hitting the MMA, boxing, the biggest stories and headlines, but we like to focus on one fighter's rise. We've done it seven times in the sport of mixed martial arts. Unfortunately, seven times the person we've profiled has lost. Six times by stoppage. They say it's a curse or it's real. History will define that, but we're going to look at boxing for the first time. Canelo Alvarez, who I mentioned, did we think he was going to become a big-time crossover star? Yes. Did we ever think, number one, pound for pound? I'm not sure.

Four-division champion, I'm not sure we ever thought he could be this great. But when we look back on his journey, which started at age 15, when he turned pro after a short amateur career, we will look at 10 of his biggest fights that tell the story of how he got here and who he is as a great champion. He is an unbelievable story. And to BC's point, a surprising one. You can see flashes of brilliance from the beginning of his time on Showtime

and even before that, certainly after that. But what he has developed into is something of a juggernaut. And BC, it just has to be said, here is a guy who you can clearly look at and not every time someone loses, they learn. We know the common phrase, you either win or you learn. Well, that can be true. It's not often true. But in the case of Canelo Alvarez, he had some wins that were close.

They were not Ls. But what you can say is, after those fights, he came out a much different fighter. So he's got this pristine record, and he's got the maturation and development of somebody who looks like they took tough losses but actually didn't. Yeah, 31 years old. He has had a hell of a career with one big name after another. We know him, of course, the youngest of eight siblings born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Seven of those siblings were boxers.

All seven were pros, Luke. He's by far the best of the group, the runt of the litter, only in terms of the order of birth. That's it. He came onto the scene, Luke, and did win his first title, 2011, a vacant 154-pound bout for the WBC title against Matthew Hatton. He would win that. He would make four title defenses, Luke, including against names as much as Alfonso Gomez, Kermit Cintron, Shane Mosley. So he was the red-haired kid just 20 years old when he won his first title. But he still wasn't validated by the public.

We're still talking about the time he got wobbled by one punch against Jose Miguel Cotto, Miguel's older brother, a few years before that. When he entered the first fight on our list, which was September 2012, when he moved from networks in a big power move from HBO to Showtime, when Golden Boy and Al Heyman made that exile for the Showtime network. We come in here against Jose Cito Lopez for really the first time Canelo's getting that main event, big pay-per-view fight feel close up.

This was not a pay-per-view, but this was a big night in boxing when Canelo is headlining a loaded card on Showtime and sending the MGM Grand the same night that across town at the Thomas and Mac Center is a pay-per-view with Sergio Martinez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. So this is Showtime flexing its muscle. This is Canelo flexing the muscle of his brand to say, I'm basically on a pay-per-view card in a main event. And although Jose Cito Lopez was not the opponent we expected, Luke, there was expectations for action, Mexican Independence Day weekend, Canelo ascending to

the stardom. Jose Cito Lopez just three months earlier had upset Victor Ortiz. It was supposed to be a stay-busy fight for Victor, the two-division champion, and it was Jose Cito who broke his jaw. Then he moves up two weight classes to take this opportunity. So as a boxing fan, you like to see that the underdog got the rocky treatment and he got rewarded for his actions, but you still kind of came in here saying, Canelo's probably going to be a little bit too big for him. Yeah, Jose Cito Lopez, known as the Riverside Rocky, as you indicated, came into this fight with a fair bit of momentum, and you can see immediately from the beginning of the first bell why he was picked. Obviously, the momentum is part of it, but also he just had a never-say-die attitude.

And what was funny, BC, was when you go back and listen, now if you watch Canelo, if you take someone by the arm and you sit down and you watch Canelo, you'll marvel at his defense. But the commentary at the time was that, okay, this guy Canelo is a puncher in his own division. He has good, effective, sometimes flashy offense, but he's quite hittable. And that actually proved to be true against Lopez, who was, I'll say this, because you don't know the weight difference, when the punches really started to land, and in particular, we'll talk about it,

I'm sure the body work, you could really begin to see the difference, but dude, Riverside Rocky, he gave it the old college try. You can't take that away from him. Let's give Lopez his flowers. He was a 140-pound journeyman slash almost contender. He had lost some close fights,

but when he went in there, moved up in weight, knocked out Victor Ortiz, it was like, Oh shit, this guy's something. So then he moved up one more weight class to take on Canelo, but deceivingly had a longer reach,

was much taller. And Luke, he's got big fricking balls as we would find out throughout his career. But in this fight in particular, because as soon as those two stood across from each other, you saw the physical size difference. By the way, this crowd was going apeshit. Apeshit for Canelo.

This is prime Canelo, matinee idol, but can he really fight era, all right? Where people are coming there just to see the young star with the freckles and the red hair and just sort of see what he has. Although Lopez did good on going to the body in round one. There was a sequence in round two, Lucas, which is so exciting to rewatch, you almost forget that,

where Jose Cito Lopez finally strikes blood, landing a combination to the body on Canelo, and then one clean right cross that split the guard. How did Canelo react by getting rung up here? Like this, with his gloves to call him on, and he put on a body assault on Lopez in response. He would end up dropping him to the body several times over the course of several rounds. But more than that, what this shows is one, the Canelo fighting spirit, even we'll talk

about it later against the Triple G fights, he would wave him on at times and like shake his head no, whatever punches him in. And I want to stay here real quick though. The Canelo label was that he was a pretty boy and he was like a counter puncher and a craft, a wannabe crafty guy. But he's not Chavez he's not walk you down and take three to give one like he's not your typical Mexican come forward warrior and there was a part of the of the Mexican boxing fan core that it took them

years to accept him by no means was he accepted into this fight and also he had no real amateur background to speak of as you noted went pro at a very early age and so folks wondered what would that do for his development but what you would see in this one and in the course of his career, dude, one thing you must understand about Canelo Alvarez, and it was full on display against Jose Cito Lopez is he is maybe the game's most dominant body puncher. There might be some other ones you could go to. Maybe he's not number one, but he's on what the short list top three. And in this one, that left hook to the liver, that left hook to the solar plexus at times,

set up by the uppercut that Paulie Malignaggi called, quite correctly, was a thing of beauty. There was nothing Lopez could do about it. We saw the video, knockdown to end round two on a body shot. Lopez kind of got saved by the bell to a degree because he stood up and it was the end of the round. Round three, another left hook to the liver drops Lopez. Lopez now bloody from the face was the end of the round. Round three, another left hook to the liver drops Lopez. Lopez now bloody from the face on the inside of his mouth.

But Luke, round four, there would be another drop on an insane combo of body shots that hurt Lopez once more. But it felt like round five, they could have stopped the fight between rounds, but Henry Ramirez, then the trainer of Lopez, they were kind of like everybody agreed, let's give you one more chance to go out there and show us your balls. Lopez did respond to start off round five. That was fun shit. He absolutely did.

Listen, this guy gave it everything he possibly could. He would push into Canelo when he could. He would try to respond along the ropes constantly. When they had to call this fight, they did it on Lopez's behalf, not because Lopez had decided he had had enough, just that the outside observers had. But to Canelo's credit, it wasn't just the body shots. His face was messed up.

It was bloodied. It was a perfectly fine call. It would have been an assault if it kept going. Joe Cortez almost jumped in many times in the fifth round. Finally, without the knockdown, though, no count, it was just sort of what you said, accumulation. Canelo wins. The crowd goes crazy.

Jim Gray tries to get him to speak in English afterwards, says, I know you've been working on it. Canelo says, next time, next time, next time. So that's where we leave that. But that was a big ascension of Canelo's star, even though the fight was never in doubt on paper, and he didn't respect Lopez's power, so he walked in there and took him out.

But Luke, what that win did... If I may interject, Al Bernstein, I thought, put it appropriately for that moment in time, which is Canelo could be something special if he can maintain the status as a vulnerable champion. Not super vulnerable, but a little bit vulnerable, which is you can be hit, but you also have this capability of delivering exciting action. Little did we know that, like, over time, that would actually not become his label whatsoever. But at the moment, I thought Al Bernstein's analysis was quite correct.

So while the Jose Cito Lopez, when Canelo's first then since moving to Showtime from HBO, was really big on the star power, he went head-to-head with the pay-per-view, the card was loaded on Showtime, he was the face of the movement, and he passed that test. This next fight would be the beginning of Canelo taking on challenges that even his promoter at the time, Oscar De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy, did not want him to do the chance to unify titles at 154 and call on another guy who he did not expect to fight. Luke, the fight would go down on regular showtime and it was a big deal. April 20th, 2013, when Canelo brought in his WBC title

against the WBA title from one Austin Trout. But this was actually supposed to be a setup for Canelo to fight Miguel Cotto. What happened was just a few months before at Madison Square Garden in December of the year before I was there, ringside, it was a very underrated fun fight. Austin Trout, who is a big junior middleweight, not a lot of power, but savvy, smart, that long jab, hard to move around physically. He shocked the world and went out there and put it on Cotto to win the title and got rewarded for it because it was Canelo who said, give me that smoke.

This may be a bad style matchup on paper for me, a longer, bigger, pure boxer, but I have to prove myself. Luke, they went to the Alamo Dome and they filled that shit. So there's no question here on the Canelo star value, but there was legitimate concern critically, can he box with a guy this big, this smart, this savvy? Austin Trout was, to your point, not a dominant puncher in that sense, but a southpaw, as you can see here,

so there is obviously a little bit of a difference for Canelo to solve that problem. Great movement with the jab, behind the jab, great lateral movement overall, very slick combination puncher when he wanted to be. Good chin. Good chin, good cardio, battle-tested against Miguel Cotto is win or lose. You're not going to beat a chump if you beat Miguel Cotto. So he came into this fight.

Now, granted, the crowd was against him, and it turned out over time, maybe the judges were too. Maybe Texas Forever was against him. By the way, when he went and beat Cotto, he was the first fighter to defeat Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden. Which is hard to do. Paulie Malignaggi had compared it, because he tried and lost against Cotto and got his face broken, to going into hell and fighting the devil.

So not only did he do that, now he's in Canelo land here. And let's say one thing about Trout. Everything you said, but the storyline was interesting because Trout had won his world title. Trout had been a journeyman. He wasn't picked by promoters. He was not expected to be this, but he was so slick and dangerous coming out of New Mexico as a guy you

don't look good against that he had to go the backdoor tour of going to different countries. He went into Mexico, into Guadalajara, to the Alvarez boys' home city and won his WBA title by vacant decision win over one Rigoberto Alvarez, who was Canelo's older brother. So the revenge angle was what the promoters tried to put in here, even if Canelo and Trout really didn't dislike each other. That was the storyline coming in. But what this storyline became, despite the fact that the crowd again is screaming like it's a Menudo concert.

I mean, they are going sick for Canelo. I remember watching this live on television and being amazed at how fast he was becoming a box office attraction. But more to the point, this is, I don't know if this is the beginning, BC, but Canelo electing for the smoke, Canelo electing to take on tough challenges, you may have thought it was true for one particular circumstance or another. And what you can actually do is, if you wanted to, starting from the trout fight, fair enough, BC, you can draw a straight line all the way across his career of him electing to have tougher challenges.

Except for the hiccup, we'll get into it, when he waited out Triple G, except for that little window when he kind of waited him out. Fair enough, though, but there is a consistent thread all the way through for the most part. No doubt. All right, Trout moves his wedding night with his fiance, Taylor, who was ringside to get this payday, and what Trout does in the first four to five, even six rounds, Luke, on my scorecard, not the same on everybody's, was come out and control this fight.

So here's the deal of how these rounds played out if you were a judge. How did you score the first six? I gave... Before the seventh round. I gave, upon rewatch, I scored round two for Canelo because he made great adjustments and landed big counter shots, but I gave round one, three, four, five, and six to Trout.

Five rounds to one in favor of Trout at the midway point. You're going to say, why? Because here's the deal. All the rounds came with the classic debate of, did you like Trout's activity, movement, constant jabbing to the body, and ring generalship to take the center of the ring and do what he wants? Or did you like the fact that when Canelo did land,

it was efficient, clean, and powerful? But Luke, there was not enough of it. And I thought the body work that Trout did in the first half, the judges certainly didn't see it that way. Even the Showtime announcers were favoring Canelo's power. Yes, there were some rounds where Canelo's power trumps Trout's output. But Luke, when you are controlling this long of portions of the round and constantly jabbing this guy to the body and making him fight your fight, that's part of the scoring criteria. He had a hard time cornering Trout. As you can see, Trout, his ring generalship, even on the back foot, is

quite good. He was able to exit consistently against Canelo for the first six rounds. I had it four rounds to two. Almost had it three to three, but I decided against that. So four rounds to two in favor of Austin Trout, but as we know, BC, the seventh round is where things become undone. Well, before we get there real quick, even whether

you're scoring these for Canelo like the judges did or Trout like I did, round three had the first instance that Canelo is evolving as a defensive fighter. Look, Canelo, especially at 154, not known for quick foot speed. That's why guys like Mayweather and Lara were always going to give him trouble. But the swiveling of what he does in the upper body, round three had this sequence where Trout basically tried to put on like a nine-punch combinations of jabs and short punches, and you've got Canelo just getting out of the way in almost masterful fashion right here. Luke, this was the beginning of what would be a trope,

a calling card in Canelo's playbook to slip these punches, but it also showed you that as this fight is going on, he's picking things out in Trout. Yeah, and by the way, you would see the apex version of this in maybe the Danny Jacobs fight fight where he was able to just show incredible trunk and shoulder movement. But again, there's just no denying, I think even the math speaks to this, there was just way more volume from Trout, way more activity, way more. I thought he was trying to take command of the fight and almost let Canelo settle into a role where he was responding to what he was doing, which again, either you value the power as more than that, but in terms of activity, he was in the back foot.

Well, here's where Trout came into trouble. You can go close to the fire, but you can't get burned. In round six, which I think was the best and most competitive round of the fight, I gave it to Trout that barely. You had a comment from Paulie on the broadcast, Trout has to be careful spending so much time in the pocket. Luke, Trout got lit up a bit with some counter uppercuts to close round six, but in round seven, he got dropped by an absolutely gorgeous right-hand cross, which changed the momentum of this fight in a big way.

Did you see how he set it up? He set it up with head feints. He goes inside, outside, inside, or excuse me, outside, inside, outside, and Trout just never saw it coming. The right goes right down the pipe. And by the way, Trout, not an easy guy to knock down. No. At this stage of his career, certainly. This was such a beautiful punch. And I don't think this changed the momentum of the fight. But this, which we'll talk about in just a second, plus the open scoring, I think did.

I think once that settled in, Trout was, he tried, but he was up against it. Let's give Trout credit here. Whether you go extreme like me and basically score the fight for him or not, he got up in that seventh round from that knockdown, and he put it on so good with combinations close to the round, that Al Bernstein, the broadcaster, is saying, this could be a 10-9 round and not a 10-8

round because Trout was that good. That ends up being the story of the second half of this fight, but the major problem was what you alluded to, the open scoring and how it was played out. Just don't want to lose sight of the fact that Canelo also showing power punching against a seasoned opponent here who was hard to drop. Okay, but you're right. So I have it six rounds to two at the eight-round mark. But Canelo gets the extra point for the knockdown.

But the judges reveal their scores under WBC open scoring rules. They did it after round four. But when they did it after round eight, 80 to 71 to Canelo, which is seven rounds to one, which Paulie, to his credit, was just shitting on that. He was irate. Like they just mailed it in,

missing a good fight, all that stuff. But then 78-73 and 76-75, all for Canelo. The problem here with open scoring and the way that this fight was judged, and especially that one

just horrifically bad card, is Trout's not a knockout puncher, so the second you heard this on the broadcast, the fight's over. Canelo kind of knew the fight was over, because mathematically, Luke, unless he got a knockdown, he can't win the fight just by winning the rounds to close it. And it was disappointing to me, maybe as a respecter of a pure boxer, knowing he can't climb this hill now. So it's like, now you've killed the entertainment value of this fight, and I think even Canelo a certain degree, started to move on the outside and be like, you've got to come after me.

That 12th round, he danced through half of it. But this is what you have to understand. If you watch other combat sports like MMA and you're down when there's one round left, again, situations will vary. But it might be possible if you've been losing the striking bouts, like, I don't know, completely change it up and go to the wrestling or something. But in boxing where you are dealing with a more, a very difficult but a more narrower skill set, it's just punching, if you're that far behind and you only have three minutes,

you have a difficult choice to make if you're Austin Trout. Are you really gonna step on the gas and go for it and potentially get risked getting viciously KO'd? Which, again, you're dealing with a known puncher at this point who dropped you in the seventh round. What can you do to meaningfully change the scales? You would have to have the most insane level of just accepting risk to do anything. You're kind of screwed in that position, and I think you saw both fighters kind of react in that way. We go to the scorecards. This would be the beginning of Canelo, Luke, getting the benefit of the doubt in close rounds,

which either means, oh, it's because of his stardom. It happened to Oscar De La Hoya, too, against, you know, Ike Cortez against Pernell Whitaker before he ended up getting kind of screwed against Trinidad. But I also think because Canelo is so efficient as a counterpuncher, when he does land, and Luke, according to CompuBox in this fight, he will land 43% of his power shots, that wins over the judges, too, at the end of the day.

So when I re-scored this, Luke, I scored it for Trout upon first watch. I was one of the few media members. I re-scored it six rounds to six, a draw, but Canelo would win because of the one point extra for the knockdown. All right, so here's how I viewed it. I don't remember how I scored it in real time. You were obviously working on the boxing beat. I was merely watching as a fan at that point.

However, in watching it this time, I find you and I are a little bit apart on Canelo. I do think that the power punching he does matters more than the volume of some of his opponents. Obviously, rounds and circumstances will vary through the Laura and the Triple G fights. But this is a consistent theme, and we're going to talk about this when we get to the Triple G fights. We see, as you well know, for example, in the second Triple G fight, he got totally outjabbed. But what saved him in the end, ostensibly, was all the bodywork and the power punches he lands. Lacking on volume, in particular behind the jab, is a consistent, I don't know if problem

for Canelo, but something that consistently materializes in the numbers. This fight is a great example of it where I don't think he could match the overall volume in terms of what the stats showed for Trout,, dude, you can hear the difference even on the broadcast when Canelo lands versus when Trout or Lara or whoever else lands. The official score is 119-108, which is 11 rounds to 1. It's fucking ridiculous. 115-112, okay. It's fine.

You're some close rounds in 116-111, all for Canelo. Luke, pros and cons, you kind of just alluded to it. Canelo's got fight-changing power at 154. There's no question after that. He's much better defensively, and his accuracy is great, but he did not have 12-round full championship-level stamina to be able to throw. That's why I think you can argue Trout back in a lot of these rounds. Canelo just did not throw enough punches. He would learn that lesson from this fight. What was the best thing?

But he did not throw enough punches. Aside from the seventh round right straight, what was the best thing in your mind he did in this fight? The swivel defensively, to just kind of show that even if you have a speed advantage against him, you can't just at will pick him apart. You're going to have to play chess with him. And when you do at close range, as Trout found out, you can pay the price.

You can pay the price for it. So major cons, though, against Canelo about that. I thought he got the edge on the scorecards, even though he didn't do enough work. But Luke, star-wise, he was massive now at 22 years old. And Floyd Mayweather, who had just been the kingpin on this mass exodus for the Golden Boy Fighters, come from HBO to Showtime. Once Floyd signed that eight fight pay-per-view deal for landmark 300 million money, just ridiculous. And after Floyd got

through Robert Guerrero, the path started to cross for these two to potentially meet. And what on paper coming in, Luke was like, could this be the biggest fight of all time? Now, this will go down as my favorite fight week. It's my first Vegas trip of all time. It was the most fun pay-per-view fight week I've ever been a part of. I think we met for the first time. Also, when you and I met for the first time, you were covering that for SB Nation.

That's right. I was covering it for ESPN.com. September 14, 2013, they called it the one. They had an incredible press tour. Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez. It was 36-year-old Floyd moving up in weight. I believe they did it at a catch weight of 152. So Canelo had to cut down those two more pounds. By the way, can I just say, I missed the press tours. They stopped in DC at the Howard Theater. They were professional.

It was, I don't know how to explain it. It was like a pep rally. It was one of the most fun things. They even made a painting for them and put it on the side of the Howard Theater. And this was the first time, BC, it's the first time I saw Floyd and Dan Raphael arguing about how much the guaranteed purse was for Floyd. At the time, this was a record. It was $40 million. So you rarely get fights this perfect. Floyd, 36, the reigning pound-for-pound king.

Canelo, the maybe next big thing. But even though Canelo was 22, Luke, his record was 44-0. Floyd was 42. I'm sorry. Floyd was 44-0. Canelo was 42-0-1 coming into this. He had that one draw earlier in his career when he's fighting, like, six-round fights. Luke, the storyline coming in, this is the first super fight we had had in boxing since 2007

when Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd, fueled by the 24-7 documentary and all that, became household names, were on the cover of Sports Illustrated, sold 2.4 million pay-per-view buys to set a new record. There was the feeling like this one could compete. It ended up being 2.2 million. The last couple minutes before that main event started, you can feel it on the broadcast when you rewatch. The energy and electricity, Al Bernstein called it out saying, I've been to the biggest fights in Vegas history. This one does not feel any different.

Luke, there were so much damn expectations. Can Canelo catch up with Floyd and go to the body and do Chavez things to him? I didn't necessarily expect with Floyd's age and moving up in weight that this would end up looking like Pernell Whitaker against Chavez. That Floyd would have his way

with Young Big Red in this one. Well, here was a part of the storyline that can't get lost, BC, and you know this as well as I do, which was the weight. Though they did not fight at 154 pounds, correct me if I'm wrong, it was 152 pound catch weight. Floyd came in, I think, 150 and a half or so. I'll say this, Canelo now, again, against Caleb Plant's going to be fighting at 168 to understand some of the differences here. But it looked to me, two things stood out to me, BC.

One, Floyd was just way too good. He could stick and move here. The speed differential. It's not a fucking master class. It's just ridiculous how great he was. He was landing and not getting hit over and over again. And I do think, I absolutely think, the argument was at the time from the Mayweather team

that the weight needed to be lower for Canelo so that it could be more of an even match because Floyd is not a big 150. Floyd's 36. We have to remember this. 36. Yeah, he beat Guerrero. What would you say is Floyd's best weight class? 40 or 47? Well, even 135 maybe. I mean, he was so great offensively. So up at 152 against a guy that size, you're going to want to pull him down a little. Floyd was best at 130. Okay, so it's the same point that stands.

It did look to me like Canelo was visibly drained on the weigh-in day. I had a close seat, and it looked to me like over time, the frustration of what Floyd was doing behind the jab, behind the stick and move, behind the lateral movement, Canelo just did not have enough answers. I'll say this. Although we come out of this fight having learned, and Canelo learned a lot from Floyd on the business end, on how to

carry yourself as the number one in the sport, but also on the boxing end. This was where the first calls for Eddie Reynoso, the trainer, and the father, Chepo Reynoso, and co-managers there, that maybe they're the wrong team for them because this game plan will go down as horrific. The game plan is, let's try it for Canelo.

I'll box the greatest pure boxer of this era. Everyone from critics to fans wanted Canelo to be Chavez in this fight, wanted him to make an adjustment, walk Floyd down. Luke, as much as we could say what Canelo didn't do, the real story was what Floyd did at 36. This wasn't even what Pernell Whitaker did to Chavez, which was masterful. This was Floyd standing directly in front of Canelo, but being so confident in how small his strike zone was and how hard his counter shots would be that he disciplined Canelo, frustrated him, and Big Red had nothing.

Now, Luke, when I rewatch it, there's actually better sequences than you remember. There's actually better sort of back and forths, and Canelo will have a moment, but then Floyd will come back with that stiff right rope that if people don't realize, I know that the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight didn't set the world on fire with entertainment. You rewatch

that closely in rounds 1 and 11 and 12. Floyd disciplined the shit out of Pacquiao with that right hand. By landing it so accurate and hard, he basically said, look, I'm not a power puncher, but if you fuck with me at close range, I can get you out of there. I think even Canelo, who although he took everything Floyd had to

offer and kept coming, he was getting pieced up at moments, Luke, where it was sort of like this is not what I expected coming in. And that's the greatness of Floyd and you gotta give it to him. No doubt about it. Floyd was just on fire in this fight, even for 36. You know, that's a young 36, a guy who doesn't drink. He parties but he doesn't obviously put that

kind of stuff into his body and he was just on fire on that night. And more to the point, it did show that the weight disparity was kind of interesting, which is to say, we know Canelo has a good chin, but he got stolen consistently and it would whip Canelo's head back and it disciplined him. But I felt like it was frustrating more to Canelo than it was painful. Remember when he made Canelo miss lunging forward and Canelo ran up the ropes and Floyd was just clowning him and pointing to the ropes? There was a lot of mind games, too. Also, it should be noted, I don't know how you feel, I don't know what big fights you

covered before this. To this point in my career, I remember going to this fight and thinking, I didn't realize fights could be this big. I didn't realize that they could be this grand because the weigh-in stage was enormous. People waited in line for tickets at 3 a.m. the night before for free weigh-in tickets for the next afternoon. This was, I think it did over 2 million buys, 2.3, 2.4. Yeah, something like that.

This was the first time I'd ever seen something where the bar was, I didn't, if you were not paying attention to boxing or combat sports at that time, and then you watched this one, the grand scale of it all was beyond anything else. We would go to find out that this loss made Canelo. Made his brand, but obviously it was up to how he reacted. Luke, he learned

all of the lessons, because as you're watching this, you're like, dude, when are you going to step on the gas and go to the body? Well, every time he tried, Floyd was just snuffing that out. Also, Floyd's body work kind of kept him upright a little bit as well. His jab to the body in this, every time he tried, Floyd's just snuffing that out. Also, Floyd's body work kind of kept him upright a little bit as well. His jab to the body in this, one of the most underrated stories of the whole fight. And you're not forgotten in the championship rounds, beginning in round 10, the round before,

Floyd went big game hunting. I don't know if people, you've got to give Floyd his credit. When he's got you worn down and figured out, he did this to Mosley, to Cotto, he comes after you and tries to knock you out. He did that, but was unable to here. Yet, Canelo gets the benefit of the doubt. Good old CJ Ross scoring this fight. 1-14, 1-14.

Dude, Floyd was incensed. Every media member had it 11-1 or 12-0. What's interesting is the other two judges, 1-16, 1-12, which is 8-4 for Floyd, and 1-17, 1-11, which is 9-3. The judges were a little bit more respectful for what Alvarez did than I think they was even deserving. Yeah, we can talk about the Canelo favoritism

or why the judges respond to him. Again, I think there is a good explanation for some of that, which is that, again, in the trout bout, he's getting outvolumed, but you could just feel the difference in power. On this one, dude, how many times can you say he landed clean on Floyd? Can you count him on one hand? The total punch stats were 232 for Floyd, 114 for Canelo, but Floyd landed 53% of his power shots, which is insane, and outjabbed

him 139 to 44. Luke, great quote by Al Bernstein to end this fight. Canelo might be the fighter of tomorrow, but he has yet to become the fighter of today. Big win for Floyd. The question was, how would Canelo respond to this when you are that solved by another man, by an elite man who you are sort of stepping up another class to face? Some guys don't make it out of here. How Canelo ended up responding, Luke, I thought was great. Pay-per-view bout on Showtime next against Alfredo Angulo. Unfortunately, Angulo was not the stand-up warrior. He started a get a little washy in this fight. Yeah, but this is a perfect fight. Where Canelo ends up getting the late stoppage.

They only really had one round of back-and-forth, call-it-on Mexican-style action. But great crowd. It did around 300,000 pay-per-view buys. It was now, okay, from the rub from Floyd, Canelo has its sole pay-per-view brand. He's got it. But he doesn't just go into another fight where it's against Alfredo Angulo,

who you're going to dominate. Now he does another one. His promoter doesn't want him to do it. He did that against Trout to unify titles. Now he's moving up to a division we call Canelo weight, 155, which became Canelo's preferred catch weight before he would go to middleweight and basically announce, I'm a full-size middleweight. I'm going to take that plunge.

It was Arislandi Lara who had the interim WBA 154 title at the time, but Luke, he was considered the best, the most dangerous junior middleweight without question. We'd only seen him lose by decision to Paul Williams, what was considered an absolute robbery in which the judges in New Jersey became under investigation for that fight. He was as wrong a matchup

for what Canelo does not do great as anybody. On July 12th, 2014, they met at the MGM Graham in Las Vegas, and Luke, this was the second straight right fight at 155 for Canelo at Canelo weight. great as anybody. And July 12th, 2014, they met at the MGM Graham in Las Vegas. And Luke, this was the second straight fight at 155 for Canelo. Canelo, wait, I forgot how hot that freaking crowd was. This felt like a damn super fight upon rewatch. I mean, the Las Vegas faithful love them, some young rising Canelo.

Yeah, well, this isn't quite the Puerto Rico versus Mexico rivalry, but it felt something kind of similar to that. And it had many of the contours and the same kind of moments as the fight with Trout, where you have a guy like Lara, who just has maybe the best stick and move style from the amateur Cuban system in that division at that time, maybe in boxing at that time. And Canelo was kind of up against it through the different rounds. Lara comes in so dangerous. He had knocked out Angulo in that surprise war, and Luke, he had beat the shit out of Austin Trout.

He won a wide decision in Brooklyn and dropped him. So how Lara got this fight, people forget, after the Canelo-Angulo fight at the press conference, Lara respectfully came in, interrupted Canelo's speech, and then through an interpreter said, look, the fans want to see it. Best against the best. I want to fight you. Canelo kind of clowned him. He was like, oh, who said that? Anybody here want

to see this? Yeah, just your manager. Nobody wants to see you fight me. That's not how you make fights. Canelo was legitimately pissed off that Lara did that. But Luke, like Clubber Lang and Rocky III, it worked. He got him in the ring. Why was Lara on paper the worst style matchup for Canelo? Lara is a guy who, as you can watch the tape here, he would work on the outside, and you could see he was hard to hit. He would cross to the body, jab, and then immediately moving. And the problem with Canelo, it was less of an issue with Trout. It was much more of an issue here, even though you had the southpaw versus orthodox stance.

Look at how good Lara is at not just landing and kind of leaning out of the way, but now exiting. You see that? He can constantly find center, not just stay on the outside, although obviously Canelo's trying to keep him up against the ropes. But he would, look at that, he would exit off of the hook to the right hand. He would find ways to cover up while moving outside of the pocket. And this, or to simply wrap up like Tyson Fury did to Deontay Wilder recently, this was giving Canelo problems because the window... Canelo was pissed when he tried that headlock. That's right. Canelo was...

The windows in which to hit him are far smaller. We wondered if Lara could do the same thing Mayweather did and expose him with the foot speed. But to Canelo's credit of how he grew, Luke, I think he learned from the Austin Trout fight that he needs to have 12-round stamina. And I think he learned from Humble against Floyd, he started to cut off the ring. He wasn't just following Lara from Humble against Floyd, he started to cut off the ring.

He wasn't just following Laura around like he followed Floyd around. Canelo cut off the ring round two after losing the opening round. Canelo in round two made a statement. He wobbled Laura when he caught him off balance with that right hand. That led to that sort of tie-up that we saw. And then they begin trading almost round for round, Luke, where Canelo fights at his best style, which is closing the distance and just touching him to the body, keeping him honest. And when Laura would get on his bicycle,

land a clean left, and then circle away, it shows me as a boxing purist that you are dominating Canelo. But it doesn't always show the judges, Luke, because Laura fell into the unfortunate trope stereotype of great Cuban artists. You fall too much in love with the boxing you're doing and not throw enough punches to cement that in the eyes of the judges. That and also, you can just look at the body work here. When Canelo did his best work, it's right there, which is uppercut range, which can be either mid or right in front.

And you can see over time he's getting to it. He can't quite land so clean to the head, but dude, the body shots, ordinarily body shots would be something, and the commentators even spoke about it here, where they wondered how the judges would count it. But it visibly slowed Lara over time, even though he put up a hell of an effort later in the rounds, and certainly, certainly landed and sounded really, really, really bad. I scored the fight seven rounds to five for Lara. I rewatched it yesterday, scored it again, the same thing.

But, Luke, if you're Lara, I don't think you can actually complain because you needed to do more. I thought Canelo did the most with the task he was offered, a guy who ran a lot, and he at least tried to slow him down to the body. So even though I preferenced what Lara did, seven rounds to five, the judges didn't. How did you score? I think I had it seven to five the other way.

I think I had it first. And I think that's fair. We ended up with two. We had a 115-113 for Lara, 115-113 for Canelo, which is 7-5 either way. Yep. But then Levi Martinez doing the 117-111 for Canelo,

which is nine rounds to three. And unfortunately, it shows you that even with Lara not throwing enough, he may have never had a chance on the cards. Right. So this is the problem with Canelo pretty much consistently. Even in the CJ Raw situation

with the Mayweather fight, it's not that you can't make a claim for him in the Trout fight or the Laura fight. It's that there's always one judge who makes the whole process questionable, who makes the whole situation like, oh, right, you were never, ever going to win in this contest. Laura was a badass in this fight, Luke. Yeah, dude. At times, he certainly put it on Canelo. And the overall stats are sort of remarkable about this as well.

107 to 97, Lara outlanded Canelo in this one. So a very close fight. Could have gone either way. Canelo gets the benefit of the doubt, beats another guy they said maybe he shouldn't have fought. Luke, he moves away from Showtime, goes back to HBO, knocks out James Kirkland in the Stay Busy, probably the best knockout on Canelo's reel.

But then, Luke, we are finally ready to move up to the middleweight division. Canelo's won titles and unified them at 154. Only the middleweight champion at that time, he's come back around again, is the great Miguel Cotto, who had completely rebuilt himself at this weight division by bringing on Freddie Roach's trainer for the first time, by going back to his aggressive lead left hook, go to the body style. And Luke, by taking hold of the middleweight division by captive, because he won the lineal title by knocking out an injured Sergio Martinez,

is by making everybody else play the catchweight game, Luke. Now they're fighting at Kodo weight. He stops Daniel Gil in an interesting fight, and now he's got Canelo, and it's Puerto Rico versus Mexico. It'll be at a 155-pound catch weight. So it's for the middleweight championship, but not really. It's in some ways. Cotto was at 153. Cotto came in much lighter than the contracted weight. But I think what Cotto coming in that light showed you is he came in here to box. Luke, this fight had potential. I was there at Mandalay Bay to be, you know,

the Puerto Rico versus Mexico elite level absolute war. It's not that the fight wasn't great. Upon rewatching it, it was better than I remember it. But I don't think Cotto went for it. I think Cotto looked at the matchup between them, saw Canelo as almost a bigger version of himself, and thought, I've got to outbox him, which is the complete opposite of who he had become.

In fact, I ask Freddie Roach to this day a lot. I go, between you and us, I'll say it on the air, but I go, you wanted Cotto to let that left hook go more against Canelo, right? He's like, that's what we planned to do. For whatever reason, Cotto made the adjustment, like he did to Mayweather, because Cotto's such a smart boxer,

to try to outbox him. Luke, he came close. Seven rounds to five on my scorecard for Canelo. Judges had it much wider. Most media had it 7-5 for Canelo, where it was a close enough boxing match because Cotto's volume and smarts were there. But Luke, whenever they traded at close range, you saw a maturing, more dangerous, different Canelo. Yeah, you did. And the scores were wide

here. All three judges had it, I think like 118. 118, 110, 117, 111, and 119, 109. What are we doing here? Yeah, again, you can look at it. Here's a case where I thought Cotto did some decent boxing. But, dude, this is the consistent theme, the power punching. I cannot over—I sound like a broken record at this point, but really Cotto kind of let it happen, the power punching of Canelo. He's a dominant puncher at 154, 155, whatever you want to say at this point. Cotto just didn't have a way to take that away from him.

And because he didn't have the same foot speed as Floyd or Lara, Canelo has learned too much where he can control that. Totally. He has a way of steering opponents. He has a way of cornering opponents. And with a guy like Cotto, he just wasn't as fleet of foot. He wasn't as defensively sound himself, by the way. We should note that. It was just a matchup where he was competitive.

I won't say he wasn't competitive, but the scores don't reflect that. The fight tape, it's fun. Do you wish Cotto went for it, or do you think he gets knocked out if he goes for it? I think he gets knocked out if he goes for it. I think he knew he was going to get knocked out if he went for it. So my issue with that one is just like, to your point, it was like, well, this is not a winnable fight in the way in which I want to pursue it, so I'm just going to let this fight be what it is. But again, the dominant punching of Canelo, it sounds like we're saying he's like Deontay Wilder. That's not what we mean.

We just mean once he begins to land on opponents, I think a lot of their game plans go out the window. This one did 900,000 pay-per-view buys, was the biggest pay-per-view for a while, post-Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao. And Luke, 155 to 129 are your punch stats in favor of Alvarez. He gets the unanimous decision.

Round 10 was an absolute war, and he was the guy coming on in round 12 to try to finish him. He's now your lineal middleweight champion. So the question is at this point, Luke, is he ready to go beyond Canelo weight, beyond 155? He beat a small middleweight, right? Cotto is almost an accidental middleweight champion in that he beat a Sergio Martinez, who was smaller to begin with, but had that knee injury, and he just wasn't the same when they fought now it's will he move up to the full 160 and let's be honest here be a man go after your legacy and take on the unified boogeyman of the division at that moment in one Gennady Golovkin and Luke there are very little crimes or sins that Canelo's done as a fighter where the fans can pick and say, well, don't forget when he did that.

This is one of those things where I think he learned a lot about being an A-side from Floyd. Let's face it. What Canelo did over the next year and a half was kind of push Golovkin back and say, I'll fight you, but I want to wait until you get a little bit older. Now, why do you think he did that?

Because I think he realized that, I don't think he knew if he moved up to 160 if he was going to be able to handle the full power of somebody like Golovkin. We cannot understate who Golovkin was at this point. The big names want to fight him, so he was on a schedule of fighting four times a year and wrecking fools.

Luke, he had 18 straight title defenses at the time that he finally fought Canelo. He had a 23-fight knockout streak. He was just taking the world by storm. Big drama show. It's the fact that he could knock you out But technically he was an Olympic gold silver medalist. He was a savant and they're jab heavy smart So Canelo after the Kodo fight Instead of fighting Golovkin he takes on Amir Khan who's moving up to weight divisions and Luke We knew what was gonna happen and it happened a vicious sixth round knockout one of the most spectacular

Knockouts you'll ever see. Triple G comes into the ring afterwards. Canelo calls him up. Golovkin, you are next, my friend. But he really wasn't, because Canelo would come back and defend his 154 title against Liam Smith. Big fight at the Cowboys, you know, the Jerry World. Gets the knockout.

And then, Luke, he's got to be fighting Golovkin next, right? Right. To open 2017? Totally. No, because they found the corpse of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Your favorite fighter. And to the credit of Mexican boxing, that fight did a one million pay-per-view buys

when Chavez came out there as a zombie, and Canelo just lit him up. But Luke, after that, Canelo was ready. He waited until Triple G was 35, but Triple G was fresh off a thriller with Danny Jacobs, which you could have scored either way. I scored the draw, it was close, but Triple G was 35, but Triple G was fresh off a thriller with Danny Jacobs, which you could have scored either way. I scored in the draw.

It was close. But Triple G got the benefit of the doubt. He's still the man. We're going to find out here if Canelo can take the real power. How do you assess Canelo managing risk in terms of opponents? Because on the one hand, he sort of embraced it against Trout. He embraced the risk of I can be outboxed and solved on the cards. But this would be the first time, to your point, which is smart to ask, we thought maybe if Angulo, if it's the same Angulo that got

into a war with Lara, could he give Canelo problems? Well, we found out Canelo way too fast, and Angulo's a little washy at that point. Yes, this is the first time he's stepping up against a bigger puncher. Can Canelo rise to the moment, put it all on the line, and risk it all to win a breakthrough fight? This ain't getting a decision over Lara in a little mini chess shootout. This is the real deal, Luke, okay? And it was a big deal on November 16th, 2017, when they met at T-Mobile Arena. Golovkin 38-0 coming in there.

Fresh off that, Jacob, so I'm sorry, that was, I think I just read you the date of the rematch. No, that was the first fight. First one, yeah, 16th of September, 2017, T-Mobile Arena. Triple G 35, Canelo 27. To Canelo's credit, we never did the catchweight thing. This was at 160. Canelo bringing in the WBC

and lineal title. Triple G bringing in WBA and IBF. And this was the end of the very prime Triple G. This is the best that you're going to get, Luke. This fight, although not as good as the rematch, was still a fucking awesome middleweight championship bout between two men who went out there and responded to each other's game plans and made adjustments, but were still savage the whole time. I thought the most

surprising thing in the first half of this fight was not, oh, could Canelo's chin hold up to Triple G. It was the fact that even though Triple G's jab was on point and he controlled him and controlled the action Canelo could get away from that right hand at will Triple G was not fast enough to corner Pin Canelo on the ropes and land his money punch and that became very interesting when you saw Canelo speed Look at 154 Canelo not fast. You can out speed him if you're elite at 60 now We're seeing Canelo realize I'm a power puncher, but in the right matchup, I'm way too quick swiveling for this guy to hit me with the right. And that, I think, built Canelo's confidence. Now, I think what happened, Luke, there was a stamina dump in the middle of this fight

in which Canelo started to willingly allow himself to go to the ropes and in the corner. And that's when Triple G, not able to land the drama show, the big lucky punches, you would call it, but was just controlling it with jabs and body shots. Where I think most of us, we went to the tail end of that fight and it was a thrilling, great fight, going, okay, that's a triple G win, man. I just watched it. He controlled that damn fight with the jab. Where in that fight in your mind was Canelo most competitive?

I would say in spots, yes, but early I thought he was more competitive than late. I thought early and then at the beginning of that final third, Canelo had some moments. Yes, that's right. But I thought it was Triple G. Triple G was the middle of the sandwich, right? Absolutely. So Canelo gassy in the middle. Canelo tried to land a round-the-back punch in round six.

Triple G pissed off by that. After he wrapped the head, yeah, he didn't like that shit too much. Canelo too willing to be on the ropes, but Triple G's chin. Once Canelo in rounds nine, ten, and 11 started to try to let go a little bit. We should talk about that for just a second. Triple G's just taking the shit, and Luke just coming right at him. It cuts both ways. Let's be fair for just a second here.

When Triple G went into this fight, the biggest question I had in my mind at the time was, dude, is Triple G going to win? Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation? Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam? What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share.

It's a piece of cake. Learn more at td.com slash partial shares td ready for you triple g gonna knock this guy the fuck out like he does everybody how will canelo's chin hold up to triple g's pressure to his power to your point we have it held up in the second fight because it needed two more in the first one he wasn't really taking that money punch consistently. No, but dude, we're talking about a guy in Triple G where even some of his jabs were quite... Yeah, he doesn't stay off of you. He is on your ass. That was the big lesson. You're pointing out that Canelo accepted

some of the pressure that Triple G was providing sort of halfway, middle, maybe two-thirds in to the first fight. But dude, there was also just the reality in the first fight. Now, the second fight's very, very different. But in the first fight, he could not get there was also just the reality in the first fight. Now, the second fight's very, very different. But in the first fight, he could not get Triple G off of him. He did have moments where he could make Triple G pay a little bit,

but Triple G's chin held up, Canelo's chin held up, and the big takeaway for me was, dude, if you have to understand, Triple G was bulldozing everybody heading into this contest. He dropped Danny Jacobs in there for it. I couldn't believe, I could not believe how well both guys were standing up to flush shots that were landing. I think Canelo's last stand in this first fight was round 10 when he landed a big combo. Triple G just shook it off and went right back into zombie mode.

Triple G closed stronger. I scored it nine rounds to three at ringside, although they had pinned me in the back corner. Like I just said, the turnbuckles were in my way. I had it 7-5 Triple G. Upon rewatch, now three times I've scored it 7-5 TripleGG, but I do feel that it's a firm 7-5. Now 7-5 means that it could be a draw and someone's not crazy. I can't find seven rounds for Canelo. Yes, that's the point at the end. Unfortunately, Luke, the judges could, and this is one of

the more controversial moments of the modern era. Not because someone would score it close as Dontrella from Connecticut had a 114-114. As the third judge, Luke, I think it was Moretti, had it 115-113 for Golovkin. Okay, 7-5, that's fine. The problem is Adelaide Bird rolled around with a 118-110. Ten rounds to two for Canelo, which is just

not fucking possible. And there was controversy, and Luke this, I think unfairly but true, tagged Canelo as you can't beat him. You can't get a decision. You got to knock him out. You can't get a decision over Canelo in Las Vegas.

It is what it is right now. It was kind of a stain for boxing, Luke, because it showed that Triple G was against it from the beginning, that he had no chance unless he was perfect. I thought he had done enough. Either way, we needed to see this shit again because this was the pay-per-view that came through. A million buys, delivered on a fight of the year type thing

for CompuBox stats, 218 to 169, triple G. Luke, that's a wide balance there. For total punches. For total punches, 108 to 55 for triple G on Jabs. Which is the big one. Canelo, though, landed 41% of his counter shots. Hold on, don't lose the side of the power punches. This is the interesting part about it.

The numbers in terms of landed, 114 to 110, Canelo to Golovkin, almost identical. One thing that I wonder, not that this would explain the scorecard, but here is one interesting note. Alvarez landed 114 of 272 attempted power punches. Golovkin, 110, so just four short, out of 342. I wonder, I do think it is at least worth considering the amount of times he gets blocked or missed. There was a lot of Canelo punches.

I remember this. I had a long argument with King Moe. Remember King Moe? Oh, yeah. King Moe was convinced that Canelo won this fight, and a big part of it is he goes, look at how many times Golovkin misses, or Canelo in this fight,

even though he was trapped against the ropes a lot of times, good at rolling and deflecting a lot of big shots. It should be noted. And we don't hate on him. If you scored at 7-5 Canelo, I don't hate on you. If you scored in the draw, you can't hate on you. It's not 10 rounds to 2, though. You never had a chance.

8-4, 9-3 is impossible. The reason why this sucked as a controversial thing is because Triple G was the people's champion. And everyone had avoided him, and he was finally getting that big name in his prime to fight him. Well, also, how old was Triple G when this fight happened? 35. And then he got waited out. So the good news is we're looking at spring of 2018, right around the corner, to run this back. Before we move, did Canelo, in your mind, learn from Floyd?

There are certain guys you want to take a little bit before they're ready, and there are certain guys you want to take a little bit after. Interesting question. I think Canelo learned from this fight because the last remaining hardcore Mexican boxing fan, the Blood and Guts fan, the Chavez fans who had never yet given Canelo his due, there was still a local minority who said, okay, Canelo's great. Might even be pound for pound great. But he didn't win that fight and he didn't win that fight because he didn't come forward

consistently and go after it and be willing to pay the price, which is what he talked about. He paid a little bit of the price. But did you ever see Canelo go for it and take the center of the ring and command it? No, never. Not in the first one. Well, you did in the damn second fight. You sure did. Only there was some fuel that built Canelo's ire to get there.

They were supposed to fight in the spring of 2018. And then Luke, as the great Richard Dwyer of YouTube would say, the term tainted beef entered the lexicon. Canelo supposedly ate the loaded up clenbuterol that's in the Mexican beef. Just to be clear, if you think he's cheating, I'm not here to dissuade you. It is a complicated issue. There are numerous incidents across a wide variety of sports, including even youth sports teams in Mexico, of eating beef and having tainted cl Clinbuterol traces show up. I'm not asking you to believe it.

I'm not telling you not to. But for the fuller picture, it's not utterly implausible. Utterly. Good one right there. So, Triple G stays busy on that May date. Canelo gets suspended. He blows away Vanus Martiros in last minute. But I think the prevailing theme through this...

That was an unnecessary fight. Steamroll. The prevailing theme, though, is Triple G's not letting this cheater thing go. You see Caleb Plant doing it now to try to get under Canelo's skin. Triple G's talking about, I have photos from the first fight where you can see the track marks of injections. Yeah, you can't. I mean, he is going ham.

That brought, if there was something that was going to bring the fire out of Canelo, Luke, you're not a well-rounded, complete fighter, really, until you win a fight forced to use every possible strategy. going to bring the fire out of Canelo. Luke, you're not a well-rounded complete fighter, really, until you win a fight using almost every, forced to use every possible strategy. We've seen Canelo as the Marquez-educated counterpuncher. Some people wanted him to be the stalker that he became at 168, which we'll talk about. This is the fight where that started, because he basically made a decision, Canelo Alvarez, in this rematch, September 15th, 2018, another million pay-per-view seller, big-time expectations because that first fight was so good. Luke, he said, I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to walk down the man. I'm going to walk down the bigger puncher, and I'm going to win or lose basically by bringing my gun to the gunfight, and we're going to have a shootout.

Luke, thank you, Big Red, that he would do that. This is the best fight I've ever been ringside for in boxing, and I've seen some great ones. And Luke, rewatch. I'm sure you did rewatch this. Oh, yeah. It's fucking awesome. This fight rules. Yeah, the punch total was higher for Alvarez, 169, and the first fight landed in this one, 202.

The jab was not a whole lot different. 55 landed in the first one, 59 in the second, and then the overall power punch is 114 in the first one, 143 in the second. But dude, it's the whole posture he took. Quite literally, physically and strategically, taking the center, driving Golovkin back. Going to the body. Going to the body constantly.

But also, dude, pumping the jab as well. Trying to take away the option for, where's Golovkin do his best work? Behind the jab for the most part. So he was jabbing with him. He was trying to drive him back in this fight. Golovkin at this point, CompuBox, historic-wise, was the best jabber in the history of boxing in terms of amounts and percentage.

Like, ridiculous. And so Canelo said decidedly, I'm not going to have my back on the ropes. I'm not going to let you jab for free. I'm going to jab with this guy, and then I'm going to do all the other Canelo things that you alluded to to bring the whole picture to life. You've got to try to hurt the bigger man early.

In round two, Canelo landed a big left hook where Triple G actually got rocked. He got moved by it. The first time in the whole fight between these two, or I should say both fights, you saw someone get visibly, not wobbled, but it moved them. And Triple G's 36 now. Canelo's got a cut over his left eye in round five. In that round, Roy Jones says, Triple G's seeing something he's never seen before, someone stalking him. Canelo turned Triple G into the boxer in the second fight.

True or false? Ooh. Through the first nine to ten rounds, I did think that who put it on the other guy more in the final rounds, at least in terms of effort, who was trying to do more. I would actually say that Triple G, I thought, had a better charge. Maybe rounds 10 and 11, not so much 12. But the second half of the fight, you will say, the story over the whole second half

was Canelo taking the center of the ring and walking forward. And Luke, he took some fucking bombs. He took some huge bombs. He took those right hands I talked about that Triple G didn't land in the first fight. He did at close range in the second fight. Only Canelo took them, kept coming. They both dealt with ferocious clean firepower and kept coming through. That's why this fight is so great.

And to your point, in the first fight, Canelo was the one who couldn't get Triple G off of him. Yes. The roles reversed. This time, Triple G and landing, landing. A noted power puncher at 160 in Triple G had real difficulty getting Canelo off of him. Round 10, a fucking war. In fact, Triple G is forced to make a stand to close this fight because Canelo made him. And in round 11, Triple G went for it.

He threw 30 more punches than Canelo. They both landed 18 for the round. But round 11 was Triple G trying to actively get the knockout and Canelo standing firm. Luke, this 12th round that came out of this, put that shit in the time capsule. That's classic boxing. Is that the best round of the 24? 10 might be the best round in this fight, but 12 with the added sort of feel of like,

this is round 12, let it all hang out. Luke, they tried to knock each other out. Now, how did you score going into the 12th? Because I had it at that point with Canelo having, I wouldn't say a firm lead, but I didn't think, I think I had it where, I have to go back and look at my notes, but even if Triple G won the 12th, that wouldn't have been enough.

Did you have it 6-5 or something like that? I knew Triple G needed to win the final round on my card to win the fight, and he did seven rounds to five. What people went against Triple G in that final round was because he got cut late on his eyes. So that visual maybe gave... Did Canelo get cut in the ninth or 10th? Canelo in the fifth got cut, but it never really was a problem.

So we go to the scorecards. I had it 7-5 Golovkin. I have zero problem if it's a draw or 7-5 Canelo. It's a classic great fight. The judges, 115-113 Canelo, 115-113 Canelo. That's both 7 rounds to 5, and then 114-114. A majority decision for Canelo Alvarez. You cannot talk about the robbery like we did the first time

because the second fight was so great and because Canelo came forward, which means, look, I ended up scoring the fact that Triple G's jabs were so voluminous and I thought he just won more rounds, really, at the end of the day. But Canelo won the story of this fight. He walked down, he Mexican style, he walked down the bigger puncher. And I have no problem, even though Triple G outlanded him 234 to 202 according to CompuBox, even though the jab total was 118 to 59

for Triple G, Canelo landed 40% of his power shots though. Right. And this was a great classic fight. The only lament I have is that Triple G

would leave these two fights the two biggest of his career with not one scorecard scored for him. That's interesting. That's tough. The other problem was at this point, what, he's 36, almost 37 years old,

and you're asking yourself, okay, you could run it back a third time. In fact, I even have a tweet at the time when I was covering this fight and saying to myself, if they're going to do a third fight, it needs to be in New York for something of a slightly different audience for it, perhaps a different set of judges, who knows. But even if you did a third fight, BC, the second fight was sobering, I think, for Triple G fans, because I think they felt maybe you could make a case that he won. Again, not all that difficult to make per se, but he didn't, and so you're thinking

about a third fight. You're saying, what would be different in the third fight, given what happened in the second, and the technical growth that you saw, and the strategic change between the first and the second? Triple G's only going to get older. Canelo's only going to get better. Why would a third one ultimately be different? Plus, Canelo was sick of his ass.

Canelo, at this point, was tired of answering questions about him, didn't want to talk about him. And Canelo, in that post-fight press conference after the second fight, he was beaten, but he had won. He had stood up to the bully. Incredible stuff. Here's why Canelo's great. He now signs a deal with The Zone.

First a one-off to come back less than three months later after this savage war, to move up in weight, take on Rocky Fielding for a secondary super middleweight title, but it gave us a vision of who he could be at super middleweight. He gets the knockout. Before, though, he would campaign at 68, he'd go back down to middleweight one more time in a unification

buttfight against a prime Danny Jacobs, the same guy who had stopped Golovkin's 23-fight knockout streak by going the distance against him. Luke, May 4th, 2019. We look at this in retrospect as, okay, ho-hum, another close but clear Canelo unanimous decision. It was squeaky bum time when the decisions were read. Only go back and rewatch this.

This is a really good fight. Not great. A really good fight. Jacobs, 35-2 coming in to unify three titles. The last fight for Canelo at middleweight. And, Luke, he's 28 years old in his absolute physical prime. This was the beginning of the Canelo we would see at super middleweight because he's not fearful of Jacobs' power,

even though Jacobs is three inches bigger in height, three inches longer reach, and is basically a super middleweight when he cuts down to middleweight. And we should note, Danny Jacobs, slick as hell. And he can punch. So, Luke, this was a fun fight back and forth. You can see the improvements that Canelo made just from sharing a ring for 24 rounds with Triple G.

He had to get savvier. He had to get smarter. That was on display. Here's my problem, though, at the end of the day. Tell me if I'm just a guy who favors pure boxers or maybe I'm anti-Canelo. I scored this fight six rounds to six at the end and I feel like if Danny Jacobs

had been busier in the championship rounds, he could have taken a decision here from Canelo. I think there has to be something. Because he's the prototype wrong body structure of a guy for Canelo to fight.

Two reactions I have to this one. After this fight and the two Triple G fights and the Lara fight and the Trout fight, which they're all different in their own ways, but if there's one commonality,

it's like, dude, how did Canelo win that exactly? And especially by some of the wider margins that we saw, there has to be something, BC, to sitting ringside. I just wonder from an auditory standpoint if they just feel and sound different and whatever, because I feel the counter punches feel bigger. It's just hard to explain this consistently,

these kinds of scorecards. I would also say you alluded to it at the beginning of what we did. It is worth reminding folks, win or learn, right? You either win or you lose, but if you lose, you learn. Well, he doesn't have the Ls, but dude, if you watch this fight against Andy Jacobs at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, what you come away with is he absolutely has matured as a fighter

and all of the things that didn't necessarily cost him in the win and loss column but maybe have been causes for concerns, he has ironed out most of them. He has addressed them. He was a boxer in full against Danny Jacobs, even if you want to argue that Jacobs did more to win that fight. You cannot argue against the slickness now, defensively and offensively. I want to argue that Jacobs could have done more, but like Cotto, he would have risked getting knocked out.

I think Canelo has a way better chin than Danny Jacobs. Jacobs went south, Paul landed the best punch of the fight in round nine, that left cross. It kind of wobbled Canelo a little bit. And even though Jacobs took on the posture of, I'm ready to brawl, he really wasn't. I think that cost him. We go to the scorecards, 116-112, 115-113, and 115-113.

So the judges see it, 75-75-84. But Canelo unifies middleweight titles. One 88 to one 31 Canelo is the advantage on the punching stats. So it's a big Canelo win, but Luke, now we're going not just to 68. We're going to move up two weight classes. Our next fight and challenge 36 year old Sergey Kovalev for the WBC light

heavyweight title. This guy Canelo is a badass. I'm sorry. I don't care if that's old Kovalev, young Kovalev would kick,BC light heavyweight title. This guy Canelo's a badass. I'm sorry. I don't care if that's old Kovalev. Young Kovalev would kick, would push your shit in, dude. Old Kovalev can still punch. Yeah, dude. Well, this is Crusher, right?

Old Crusher Kovalev. This was the fight, though, for some fans who might remember this, either on the boxing or the MMA side, where the main event had to wait for the BMF fight. I believe that's right, right? I was in the arena at the MGM Grand Garden as we watched the UFC BMF fight on the big screen as Canelo and Kovalev were on the couch in the back.

A weird moment. The zone made a bad decision. Yeah, it was a weird moment. But to that point, there were questions about Kovalev being a little bit shopworn. Obviously, the ward fights were long in the past. He had gone life or death with Anthony Yard a few months earlier and won a close decision to get this fight. But he wasn't. Sorry, late stoppage.

TKO 11. Yes, but he wasn't exactly in his prime. But you thought... I remember at the weigh-ins when they faced off at each other, you're like, dude, Canelo looks like his little brother. What is he doing up there? Four inches taller, two and a half inch reach, and we expected would have the punching power.

Kovalev destroyed folks at 175. Like, and he could box. Go watch the Bernard Hopkins fight. Luke, what I did not expect was that from the very beginning until this fight ended in round 11, Canelo was the stalker and the bigger puncher, and Kovalev was the boxer. It was as if they had just made that decision beforehand

and that's how the fight was going to go. It was very fascinating. The reason why I think he did that in retrospect was because of that reach that Kovalev had, even though he was a little bit washy-washy at this time. If you're going to make effective use of what reach you have against an opponent this tall and this rangy, you got to get them up against the ropes. You got to limit what space he can use to move it. We all know in the ropes, they can still slide back and everything else like that. But I feel like he had to do that just to get on the inside. He didn't want to let

that guy play. And dude, I'll say this to his, say this to Kovalev's credit. I thought he was winning that fight for the most part up until he wasn't. I had him by one point. The official scorecards at the time of the stoppage were 96-94, 96-94, and 95-95. Wow. So two for Canelo. Wait, 96 for Kovalev? No, for Canelo on both. I had it the other way, 96-94 Kovalev.

The point was, Kovalev bought. No one wants to say it now? Kovalev fought a really interesting fight. No one remembers it because the whole story of the fight was Canelo goes up two weight classes and stops Kovalev, the point was, Kovalev bought, no one wants to say it now, Kovalev fought a really interesting fight. No one remembers it because the whole story of the fight was Canelo goes up two weight classes and stops Kovalev. Well, the 10 rounds previously, Kovalev was, I thought, acquitting himself for the most part quite nicely. But when the opening was there, Canelo delivered the boom.

He hurt him with the right hand, but then it was left hook right into that. I mean, he knocked him the hell out. Dude, for his power. That's how he seized that shit. shit do his power to carry up to 175 you can say what you want about Kovalev State that's fine But do when you're knocking out a visibly larger man that way who is yes Maybe a little washy, but also battle-tested and again It wasn't like you've been getting run over for the ten previous rounds for your power to carry up that high

You just you knew that you're a set. This was one of those fights where you're, through the Kirkland fight, you could raise the floor of how his deficiencies would need to be reevaluated. This was now his offense raising his ceiling. And Luke, he would become a destroyer at 168. He'd move back down, defeat Callum Smith in a wide decision, destroy mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim, and to close Canelo's most recent fight, May 8th of this year, 2021, Jerry World in Arlington. It goes down as a TKO-8 because Billy Joe Saunders retired on his stool after breaking his orbital

bone. What I learned about this version of Canelo, which is the most recent, the one that we're going to see now step into the ring with Caleb Plant, is he is a stalker at 168, and he's not waiting for you. He's coming after you, and really it comes down to you could be like Billy Joe and win some cute rounds in the middle, but once it's time to sit and trade, at 168, he's a destroyer. Okay, so let's get this straight. He drops Kovalev and finishes him off in the 11th. In the, what was it, sixth round, eighth round against Billy Joe Saunders.

Saunders is leaning over to the side, and Canelo catches him, not in front of him, but off to the side and leaning. Doesn't just break his face. He broke it in a place where it's not even clear Billy Joe Saunders can or will fight again. It was extensive damage all through the eye socket off of one punch. To credit to Saunders, he reacts,

but he kind of guts out the rest of the round and then they obviously call the fight after that. Here's my point, BC. Dude, at 168, literally breaking guys' faces. I don't think anyone saw this when he was at 154 and 155, whatever. You never would have imagined his power carried this much. And now look at it. What can you say?

He is a puncher up to weight classes in those divisions. He can punch for those weight classes. And he's a great athlete, and he does not have speed deficiencies at these weight classes because he's moved up so much. There's a little bit of Pacquiao in that and the daring to be great, but he could just be any fighter he wants seemingly at any weight class. And that's who we have. Your Pomp for Pound King entering November 6th,

Showtime Pay-Per-View, and your Unified Super Middleweight Champion looking for that last belt, the fourth one, the IBF title that Caleb Plant has. It'll go down in Las Vegas on Showtime Pay-Per-View. your unified super middleweight champion looking for that last belt the fourth one the ibf title that caleb plant has it'll go down in las vegas on showtime pay-per-view one last question the road that we just recapped the get here though luke you have a complete all-time great fighter here in canelo alvarez yeah he can do everything at this point and again even though through he got the wins and controversial losses it's not like he didn't take lessons from them he didn't coast on those things question for you with a Caleb Plant one. Who does he most resemble among previous fights that Canelo has had? I know he's his own man. He's his own man. There's not a perfect one. Even though it's righty lefty, the last fight,

Billy Joe Saunders, I think was the guy that we thought, okay, this is a style we haven't seen Canelo be on this level. A guy who can be negative if he wants, he can hold, he can slow down the pace of the fight, can land with long arms and then get out of the way and basically make you have to fight his fight. Canelo did, only Canelo landed such hard corner shots that he almost knocked the mouthpiece out of Billy Joe's mouth in round four before setting up for when he broke his face. Caleb Plant's more of a pure boxer, not so much smoke and mirrors. Billy Joe Saunders wants you to miss and then he wants to do an act, right? It's kind of like Lara did, right? To try to win over the crowd and show you his artistry caleb plant just wants to get in and out if his speed is that much more profound than canelo this could be an interesting style matchup that's what we're

gonna have to find out but we are going to see it on november 6th i can't wait let's see if canelavers can break the curse of morning combat if you like what we did here that's luke thomas brian campbell you can follow us watch us every monday wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. Eastern on YouTube, covering all the big headlines, news recaps, boxing, and MMA. For our great staff here and for the current king, Canelo Alvarez, as we enter into another big one, that's LT, this is BC. Thanks for joining us. Enjoy the fight. It's November 6th.

How did you envision things going on November 6th? Winning. Winning those titles. ¿Cómo crees que va a ser el 6 de noviembre? Ganar, ganar esos títulos, ser el campeón unificado y hacer historia. Eso es lo que más busco. Me voy a dar mi mano en la carrera, si necesito. La gente dice que si necesito, pero realmente he tenido que comprar si necesito, no importa lo que. Yo sé lo que significa, personalmente. but I've really had to buy any means necessary no matter what. I know what that means personally. The first in Latin America. The first in this weight class. And that's what I want at the end of my career, to make history. That's what I'm looking for.

He's going to find out at the same time that everybody else found out when they thought that I was just an ugly show official, they found out when it was too late. you