What Canelo's Next Opponent Might Tell Us

So yeah, there's currently a lot of criticism out there for Mr. Canelo Alvarez. It's understandable, too. Reason away things all you want, fans have a right to see the best fight the best in a timely fashion...and pushing off a Canelo-GGG fight until at least next year is going to rightfully put off fans. Strange how boxing is the only sport I know of where the fans take a back seat (why is the UFC growing in popularity, you ask?).

At any rate, I have no idea what Canelo or his promoter Oscar De La Hoya are truly thinking, so I'm going to hold off criticizing these men outright. It's important to be fair, after all, especially in this age of click bait and knee jerk reactions. With that in mind, though, I feel Canelo's next choice of opponent might speak volumes regarding what his and Oscar's future plans are.

Should Canelo indeed surprise the world and face GGG next, well then all will - or should - be forgiven. Few think that will happen, though, so let's see what the other options are. There's challenging middleweights and junior middleweights out there like David Lemieux, Erislandy Lara and even Andy Lee. Should Canelo face men such as these, there may be good reason to believe the guy seriously wants to challenge himself...perhaps even in prep for a GGG showdown.

Should Canelo go the route of  Danny Garcia, however - or, worse yet, the route of Adonis Stevenson, then we know the parties' over, that he's a guy who is just cashing in while hoping GGG will decline through age or simply go away. Let's hope we don't hear a name from left field mentioned as the man's opponent this time around.

Then, of course, there's the save face move, otherwise known as Billy Joe Saunders. Saunders is a belt holder at middleweight, and like Canelo, has arguably appeared skittish of GGG. Since Saunders isn't seen as too much of a threat, at least in comparison to Golovkin, this may be the guy Oscar and Canelo try to get in the ring. Saunders seems like he may - "may" being the operative word here -  be a modern, risk averse fighter, though so he might simply have no genuine interest in a Canelo challenge.

So, in summations: none of us know where everyone's favorite red haired warrior is headed at this point, but by mid to late summer, the direction may indeed be clear.

Are Today's Top Young Boxers Entitled Millennials?

Some just want to get rich while taking it easy

Back when I was in my twenties, my friends and I didn't see ourselves as being  members of Generation X. Oh, we fit the demographic by birth, but there was something about the image of a typical slacker - some mope who had no interest in taking part in the general workings of society -  that rubbed us the wrong way. Looking back on it now I see that, in a lot of ways,  my friends and I were - you guessed it - typical  Generation X slackers.

Enough of me and my generation, though, let's talk about today's youth, the much maligned Millennials. As an associate professor at a local university, I see these kids all the time. And guess what? I like 'em. A lot. Sure the most whiny, and tisky ones of the bunch get on the news, but by and far these kids are all right. Indeed, they're far more empathetic and  moral than Gen X was in it's day. Believe it.

Still, there are some generalizations that ring true with this group as a whole. And just like my friends and I were typical Gen Xers without even realizing it, a many young people in today's Western World are acting like entitled millennials in a lot of ways. And that includes top young boxers.

Current middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, for instance, won't defend his title at the middleweight limit. Like a student in a differentiated classroom, Canelo wants exceptions to be made for him. The same goes for middleweight Billy Joe Saunders who, legend has it, came right out and said he wasn't ready for Gennady Golovkin, even though both men are champions in the same weight division.

Indeed, it's accepted as fact that some highly paid young fighters don't feel like they have to go out and actually earn the big bucks when they can be well compensated for easy bouts. You know, entitlement. Things like opponent avoidance, catchweights and difficult negotiations have probably been around as long as the fight game, of course. Never before, though, have they been as prominent. And that suggests a generational attitude change.

Let's hope some of these kids grow up quick.

Why Quality Should Come First In Boxing

Cherry picking excites no one

So the other night a strange thing happened - I found myself watching a UFC match. Boxing had just had a pretty good night for itself, it was late, and I wasn't ready for bed (my wife was finishing up a movie), so I decided to check out McGregor-Diaz. And guess what? It was really entertaining. Sure, it was a bit sloppy for my sophisticated boxing taste (I'm so high end, don't ya know?) , but - hey - it was exiting as hell.

To my point - McGregor, the darling of the media - got beaten down by the far less heralded Diaz. It was nice to see since, from my largely objective viewpoint, McGregor is the kind of white, mouthy fighter the UFC has been building up lately for an adoring media. My suspicions were somewhat confirmed later in the weekend when I saw a clip of Diaz on camera saying that McGregor had pretty much gotten special treatment from the UFC.

The takeaway - MMA, which one would think from listening to people is the savior of combat sports,  is a lot like boxing in some regards. Yet there's another takeaway here, one that differentiates MMA - or at least the UFC - from boxing: popular MMA fighters like McGregor, whether they receive favored treatment or not, challenge themselves. McGregor supposedly moved up in weight for this fight, what's more, he fights all the time. Could the same be said of Canelo Alvarez?

Keep in mind that these words are being written by a boxing writer, not an MMA writer. Not only that, they're being written by someone who doesn't even want to write about MMA unless it pertains to boxing. In short, they're coming from a boxing fan, not an MMA fan. Yet the truth is the truth, and
the truth is this:

Marketing trumps sportsmanship when it comes to boxing.

And that's not a good thing.

I just read this morning that Billy Joe Saunders is about to face an opponent no one's heard of. He could have faced Gennady Golovkin for tons of money. Billy Joe knows, however, where more steady income can be found. The same may go for Canelo, who, let's face it, seems to want, at the very least, to cash in some more before facing Golovkin in the ring.

This sort of thing hurts the sport, my friends. Sure, McGregor, despite his boasting, won't be earning what Canelo will, but there's something unseemly about easy - or, rather, easier - money. At least that's true when it comes to professional athletes.

Look, boxing is neither dead nor dying. It's not in a great place, though. The modern world, with it's current technology, makes cherry picking harder and harder to do. What's more, the technology is only going to improve, so market based sporting careers are only going to continue to take heat.

And that, frankly, is the good part about all this.