Canelo Alvarez is the TSS 2019 Fighter of the Year

As Canelo Alvarez was advancing into boxing’s biggest attraction, there were always critics disparaging his accomplishments. To the fault-finders, noted Thomas Hauser, it was always something: “This opponent was too old. That one was too small. The decision wasn’t right. And there was a 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather when a too-young Canelo was befuddled over the course of twelve long rounds.”

Canelo was 23 when he was thrust against Mayweather. That was six years ago. And lately, the carping has ceased.

Canelo fought only twice in 2019, but cemented his legacy as an all-time great.

His first fight of 2019 came on Cinco de Mayo in Las Vegas against Daniel Jacobs. Canelo didn’t deliver a “wow” performance, but he controlled the action during the first half of the fight, built a comfortable lead, and won a unanimous decision that no one – not even Team Jacobs – disputed.

Heading in, Jacobs was widely considered the third-best middleweight, trailing only Canelo and Canelo’s great rival Gennadiy Golovkin. He owned a piece of the middleweight title. When Canelo took it away, he became the first fighter from Mexico to win three pieces of a world title since the advent of the four-belt era.

When Canelo announced that his next opponent would be Sergey Kovalev, there was a sentiment that the red-headed Mexican would be biting off more than he could chew. He would be jumping up two weight classes. Kovalev wasn’t as highly regarded as he had been before his encounters with Andre Ward, but he had put on a master boxing clinic in his rematch with Eleider Alvarez and was still looked upon as one of the sport’s most fearsome punchers.

Canelo and Kovalev met on Nov. 2 at the MGM Grand. Canelo fought a tactical fight. Gradually and almost imperceptibly he closed the distance between himself and “Krusher” who wanted to keep the fight on the outside. In the 11^th, Canelo finally found his opening and knocked Kovalev senseless with a left hook. A follow-up straight right hand left Kovalev on his knees with his arms draped over the middle strand of rope and the fight was halted.

A sidebar to the bout was the decision by DAZN to delay the start of it to show an MMA card at Madison Square Garden. The wait lasted a full 90 minutes. Days later, speaking to ESPN Deportes, Canelo said that he would use his influence to make certain that the folks at DAZN never let it happen again.

Amen to that.

Canelo won his first title at 154 pounds. His triumph over Sergey Kovalev made him a four-division champion and he turned the trick before his 30^th birthday.

There were many viable contenders for the TSS Fighter of the Year. A good case was made for Emanuel Navarrete who successfully defended his super bantamweight title four times in 2019, extending his winning streak to 25. But in the end, the nod went to the fighter born Santos Saul Alvarez Barragan, the remarkable Canelo, a crossover star in the Hispanic world.

“This guy was always very good,” said a savvy boxing aficionado to this reporter, “but now he’s more than very good; he’s a beast.”

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel 

To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE