Saturday 17 September 2016 23:00, UK
‘Canelo’ is running from Gennady Golovkin, his critics will say. On the evidence of last weekend, who could blame him?
Saul Alvarez is forging his own path that threatens to become as red-hot as his cinnamon hair, but he must eventually embrace the Golovkin risk.
The focus on Alvarez has shifted onto what he has not done, which seems unfair for a two-weight world champion with a career trajectory as exciting as his.
He has not yet accepted the challenge from Golovkin, the unified middleweight champion, and the current perception of Alvarez might depict him watching GGG's victory over Kell Brook from behind his sofa.
This is a fighter whose triumphs demand that he is not defined by those he is yet to face, but that will not remain the case forever.
This weekend, boxing's all-time attendance record could be broken when Alvarez's and his Mexican supporters are expected to pack out the 60,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Texas. Britain's Liam Smith threatens to send them home unhappy, but this is not the first time Alvarez has carried the expectation of one of boxing's great nations.
Having followed his elder brothers' career path, Alvarez racked up 21 pro fights by his 18th birthday. Two years later, he was a world champion, thumping Matthew Hatton to win the vacant WBC super-welterweight title and defending it against Ryan Rhodes. Aged 21, he added Shane Mosley's name to his burgeoning résumé.
Mosley was past his best at 40, but Alvarez's world title unification win against Austin Trout proved his 42-0-1 record was not as inflated as it may have seemed. It was a revenge mission - Trout had infiltrated the Alvarez family hometown of Guadalajara to win his WBA super-welterweight title from Rigoberto, Saul's brother.
The youngest of seven fighting siblings was reduced to swinging at thin air in his sole career defeat, a 2013 points loss to Floyd Mayweather - but even that bout is significant for Alvarez because his popularity helped the fight smash American box office records and kept him on an upward curve.
The riches on offer for fighting Mayweather made it a no-brainer, but Alvarez has taken on risky opponents before. His decision to meet the slippery Erislandy Lara - who has long been mooted to oppose Golovkin - was brave given the troubles caused by Mayweather's defence.
But weight has always been the issue. His first world title fight against Hatton was fought at a catch-weight four pounds below the 154lbs limit, and he failed to weigh in accurately twice. He dared call himself a middleweight champion after beating Miguel Cotto, but has never boxed at 160lbs. When divisional tyrant Golovkin demanded answers, Alvarez vacated his WBC belt.
He is by no means alone in abusing weight limits (Sergio Martinez and Cotto, before him, were middleweight champions competing at lower catch-weights). But it left a sour taste when, with Golovkin awaiting, he instead beat Amir Khan at 155lbs and will next challenge for Smith's WBO belt at 154lbs.
Alvarez may not make perfect sense - he is a Mexican national treasure with the ginger barnet of a Scottish centre-half, after all. His weighting game with Golovkin must be resolved, and until then, Alvarez may not receive the recognition he is due.
