Let’s examine how Canelo Alvarez‘s post-Mayweather transformation into a counter-puncher has extended his career, protecting him from damage while maintaining elite effectiveness.
Floyd beat him on points many years ago at this point and Canelo had been very young at the time.
It proved the making of him though and had a solid career after, some notes on this;
- Canelo’s proper technical development began after his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
- He strengthened his defense with waist movements and a leak-proof guard
- The shift to counter-punching reduced the number of punches he absorbs
- His signature body attack slows opponents and opens spaces upstairs
- At 35, he manages energy better across 12 rounds than earlier in his career
- Improved distance management helps him avoid unnecessary exchanges
- He adjusts his game plan based on the opponent, as shown against Golovkin and Plant
- He became the first Mexican fighter to fully unify the super middleweight division, even though belts count for little in boxing these days due to being too many of them
- Fighting off the back foot more often has preserved his health over a long career
- The Mayweather loss transformed him from a promising brawler into a complete boxer
Every since that Floyd defeat he technically improved his boxing a lot fight by fight but if you go over it, sometimes he should go back to his fighting.
He gets too technical sometimes and overthinks and forgets he used to be a great fighter.
He became a boxer-fighter but he at his core used to be a great scrapper and puncher.
That is something he should not have completely forgot to do, some of his fights he is being too technical and trying to be too smart in there at times.
That did not prove fruitful against Terence Bud Crawford last year.
Saul Canelo Alvarez takes on Christian Mbilli soon enough, let’s see if he has that eye of the Tiger soon, many think he does not.
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