By Ian S Palmer
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez of Mexico returns to the ring this weekend as he takes on England’s Amir Khan in a 12-round tilt on Saturday, May 7th at the new T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout is for Alvarez’s WBC Middleweight Championship and can be seen live in the U.S. and Canada on the HBO pay-per-view platform. Fans in the UK can catch the action live on BoxNation. While Khan has technically jumped up two weight divisions from welterweight to middleweight this contest is being fought at a catch weight of 155 lbs, which is just one over the 154 lb junior middleweight limit. Alvarez’s last fight was a 12-round unanimous decision over Miguel Cotto last November while Khan’s last outing was a 12-round unanimous decision over Chris Algieri last May.
The 25-year-old Alvarez has an excellent record of 46-1-1 along with 32 Kos. His only loss was a majority decision to Floyd Mayweather back in September of 2013 while his draw was a four-round affair against Jorge Juarez back in 2006. Alvarez stands 5-feet-9-inches tall and has a reach of 70.5 inches. He has a wealth of experience for his age since he turned pro when he was just 15 years old in 2005 and has 326 rounds under his belt since then. Alvarez has taken on and beaten some tough opponents over the years such as Cotto, James Kirkland, Mayweather, Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara, Shane Mosley, Josesito Lopez, Kermit Cintron, Carlos Baldomir, and Alfredo Angulo. Alvarez has above-average power and enters the fight with a current knockout ratio of 67 per cent.
The 29-year-old Khan is a former junior welterweight world champion and the current WBC Silver Welterweight titleholder whatever that is. He needs to look impressive in this outing if he has any hope of landing a shot against the undefeated Mayweather who could very well return to the ring in the next year or so. Khan is also a former British Commonwealth Champion who enters the contest with a solid record of 31-3 with 19 Kos. He’s on a five-fight winning streak with victories over Algieri, Devon Alexander, Luiz Collazo, Julio Diaz and Carlos Molina. The native of Bolton, England has lost three fights during his career.
He was stopped by Breidis Prescott in the first round in 2008, then lost a highly controversial split decision to Lamont Peterson in December of 2011 and was stopped by current WBC Champion Danny Garcia in the fourth round in his very next fight in July of 2012. Khan’s chin has been questioned, but he’s been in against some of the best boxers of his weight divisions such as Marco Antonio Barrera, Zab Judah, Andriy Kotelnik, Paulie Malignaggi, and those mentioned above. Khan enjoyed a fine amateur career and capped it off with a silver medal in the lightweight division at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. He turned pro in 2005 and has 203 rounds under his belt since then with a knockout ratio of 56 per cent. Khan is just over 5-feeet-8-inches tall with a reach of 71 inches.
Alvarez has a granite chin and perhaps just as much dynamite in his quick fists and while Mayweather showed he could be outboxed, there’s not much chance at all of Khan stopping him. Alvarez might be able to get by with a loss without losing any of his popularity, but that’s definitely not something he’d accept. He’s a god boxer-puncher who likes to go to the body, but has a bit of difficulty with boxers who move, such as Mayweather and Khan. On the other hand, Khan has a questionable chin as he’s been stopped in two of his three losses, by Prescott and Garcia. Much has been made of the size difference between these two boxers since this is Khan’s first fight at the weight, but to be honest, there really isn’t much of one. Alvarez is stronger though and can box as well as slug it out, but this fight comes down to speed vs power.
Prediction
Khan will definitely try to use his speed, jab and other boxing skills against the champion rather than slug it out with him even though his power is a bit underrated. Khan needs to set a fast and relentless pace while landing his shots and using his footwork to circle get out of the way of any counter shots. This is an excellent matchup that could either be over in the blink of an eye if Alvarez’ catches Khan early or go the distance if Khan can avoid or handle the champ’s power shots. If Khan had an excellent chin I could see him winning this fight. But since he doesn’t, it’s hard to imagine him winning. His only chance here is to be able to stand up to Canelo’s best and land enough effective shots of his own and I think he’ll do just that to pull off an upset on Saturday.
