In my eyes, Canelo’s stock rose with his effort Saturday night, as he boxed mega-smart, worked smarter, not harder, and was the better ring general against Miguel Cotto at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, while picking up the WBC and RING middleweight titles.

Everyone doesn’t agree; most of the folks who aren’t fully sold on the Mexican’s victory cite the same detractor.

His size…they saw a light heavyweight fighting a middleweight, and thus, believe the playing field wasn’t even.

I touched based with someone who was up close, on site, and had his wise eyes trained on the action, for very good reason. A strong possibility exists that Abel Sanchez, ringside for the Canelo UD12 victory, will get his guy Gennady Golovkin ready to accept a challenge from the Mexican.

So, Abel, I liked Canelos’ work…your thoughts?

“Yes, but he is going to need a lot more than that to get GGG off him,” Sanchez told me.

Noted…

So, did the bout play out as you thought it would?

“Exactly.”

Right…it was not a war, there were but one or two instances of reckless and glorious–for the fans–trading. Was that the right strategy for each guy?

“No,” Sanchez said. “I though Cotto moving got caught more.” So, maybe he should have moved less, worked inside more? “A little more, I thought he was smarter at close range.”
Interesting take; I liked Cotto when he moved as I think his mobility was a clear edge in his favor…

So anyway, maybe strategy was immaterial, right? Because Canelo was I think the fresher man, and had better reflexes..and was BIGGER…

“True,” Sanchez replied.

What is your guesstimate on how much bigger, Abel? Neither man agreed to hop on a scale and let HBO record their day of fight weight..and why that would be I can only guess..what do you think each weighed, Abel?

“160 for Cotto and 175 for Canelo,” said the trainer, with four decades of pugilism study under his belt. “And they said they were not middleweight!” he pointed out, pointedly.

In the ring right after the win, Canelo told Max Kellerman that he’d fight Golovkin then and there..and then at the postfight presser, made it clear that the 155-154 range is where he’s most comfortable. I think many if not most if not almost all think the middleweight title should be contested using the regular, good ole middleweight max weight cap of 160 pounds. But this is a new era of leveraging, and but of course, businessmen and fighters will gain whatever strategic edge they can. And Canelo thinks he has an edge if and when he gets Golovkin to fight at 154, because 3G has never been less than 158.5, as he was when he fought Lajuan Simon end of 2011.

Thoughts on that, if indeed that is the only way to get Canelo to accept a fight, in the near future, with the fighting pride of Kazakhstan?

“It is a mockery and an insult to all great Mexican warriors that fought and defended their title with pride,” said Sanchez. “Now, if it wasn’t for a particular title, he can fight at whatever weight he wants.”

Noted..

So we’ve heard 3G would carve and starve to 154 for Floyd Mayweather, and that $8 plus million he’d get for that fight. What about for Canelo? That is something that is being talked about behind closed doors now…

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