My people are so desperate to find the next great incarnation of Julio Cesar Chavez. Two years ago, I was at the Staples Center for the Margarito/Mosley fight. The cheers there for every Margarito jab left me deaf for two days. Those cheers have been reduced to a mere golf clap after the revelation of his plaster-filled gloves.
Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez took several decades out of each others lives, so we turned to Alfredo Angulo and Cristobal Arreola (an American for God's sake). Well, Angulo committed the greatest sin of losing to a Puerto Rican then losing his green card. Arreola gave us motion sickness whenever he took off his shirt. Where are the heroes?
Enter Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. Heavy hands, sturdy build, and a left hook he turns over so well, it ends with his back facing the floored opponent. The components of a Mexican star are all there, but what's missing?
Matthew 'Magic' Hatton knows. Every time he lunged face forward at Alvarez, he exposed Canelo's weakness- the inability to fight on the inside. Thankfully, there was nothing Hatton could do about that. It's not a bad thing. Now Alvarez's fights will have a question mark hanging over it. How would he bully Manny Pacquiao if he is limited to fighting in PacMan's range? How would he pressure Mayweather, the master of fighting in the pocket? How would he handle the reach of Paul Williams at that range?
All questions I look forward to seeing the answers too.
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