Boxer Of The Week - Canelo Alvarez

Welcome to the May 12th edition of Boxer Of The Week!

This week, frankly, is a no brainer. The honor goes to none other than Saul "Cabelo" Alvarez. Why? Because he looked nothing short of brilliant in his dominant and thrilling win against James Kirkland this past Saturday evening in Houston.

Canelo sat back and let Kirkland slug away at first, but he wasn't taking it easy. It seems he was studying, just using his great defense to prevent serious damage while observing and waiting for an opportunity to arise. Needless to say the opportunity presented itself rather quickly.

Kirkland was down and nearly out by the end of the first.

Kirkland, to his credit, survived. But a Kirkland victory simply wasn't meant to be. Canelo proved to be too skilled, too relaxed, too confident, and most of all, too accurate for his determined foe. That accuracy of Canelo's is a startling thing.

Truth be told, I never knew how good Canelo was until this past weekend. Sure, I had seen plenty of the man over time, but I had never been overly impressed until the Kirkland fight. Was I missing something before? Or has the young Mexican developed that much as a fighter since his high profile loss to Floyd Mayweather back in 2013?

I'll need to go back to those earlier fights to find out. In the meantime, I'll just admire what I saw this past weekend while keeping in mind that Kirkland was custom made for Canelo's style; that Miguel Cotto and Gennady Golovkin would prove to be far more difficult nuts to crack. Still, it's clear that Mr. Alvarez is some kind of fighter.