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On the other hand, Makabu has faced only one fighter you’ve heard of – Tony Bellew – and was stopped in three rounds.Īnd here’s the kicker: WBC officials announced when they created the bridgerweight division that they planned to lower the cruiserweight limit from 200 pounds to 190. On one hand, a 168-pounder is moving up two weight classes to face a major titleholder who weighed 197½ pounds for his most-recent fight and has 25 knockouts in 28 victories. Once again, he is making what seems to be a bold move to make history. They’re just not as good as the other three.įinally, we arrive at Alvarez’s decision to face cruiserweight titleholder Makabu. That isn’t to denigrate Smith, Saunders and Plant as weak fighters they aren’t. Again, the problem is that the system is flawed, as corrupt sanctioning bodies often provide title shots to fighters who aren’t necessarily worthy. I believe the best potential opponents at 168 or below were David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo and Gennadiy Golovkin, all of whom would have made for more compelling – and, most likely, more competitive – fights than the titleholders did.Īlvarez can argue that he was working within the system to pursue his goals. He fought Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant because they held the titles. Here’s the problem: Alvarez didn’t fight the best 168-pounders to reach his goal.

And, yes, one could argue that the accomplishment was historic. In a time of fragmented titles, fighters who hold all four major belts provide some clarity as to whom is the best in a particular division. And there was precedent: Roy Jones Jr., a light heavyweight, chose to fight John Ruiz instead of Lennox Lewis for obvious reasons when he made the bold decision to challenge for a heavyweight championship in 2003.Īfter that came Alvarez’s quest to become undisputed super middleweight champion, which also had at least some merit. That took some of the luster from Alvarez’s accomplishment but I still admire the decision to fight Kovalev given the circumstances. Indeed, Kovalev, who was stopped in 11 rounds, was the most vulnerable of the 175-pound champions. The Russian had battled Anthony Yarde in a taxing bout only nine weeks earlier, which arguably didn’t allow enough time for a 36-year-old to recover. The decision to fight Kovalev when he did was carefully calculated. I respected that decision because I respected Kovalev, who was aging but still a competent fighter and naturally bigger than Alvarez. Then came an interesting move: Again bent on adding a title in another division, he jumped from 160 pounds to 175 to face then-WBO titleholder Sergey Kovalev in November 2019.

He won a close decision in a competitive fight, restoring some of the faith I had in him.Įl primer face to face de e Ilunga Makabu en la convención con /ZMPtL6Vdw9 This was someone taking advantage of flaws in a broken system.”Īlvarez went back down to middleweight and accepted one of those genuine challenges, a meeting with talented Daniel Jacobs in May 2019. I remember thinking at the time of the Fielding fight, “This isn’t the warrior who sought out genuine challenges for so many years. The actual WBA champion at the time was Callum Smith, who Alvarez would later defeat to become a legitimate 168-pound titleholder. Fielding was a mediocre fighter who owned a belt that no one takes seriously. Of course, Alvarez won easily, stopping the Englishman in three rounds, and then basked in the glory of his great accomplishment.

That’s when it became obvious to me that the Mexican star was more interested in collecting increasingly meaningless title belts than facing the best possible opponents in a misguided attempt to “make history,” as he puts it.Īlvarez was so determined to win a title in a third division that he arranged to move up from middleweight to fight Fielding, who held the WBA “regular” super middleweight title at the time.

For me, it started with his fight against Rockey Fielding in December 2018. And I’m not talking only about his surprising decision to move up to the cruiserweight division to challenge obscure WBC titleholder Ilunga Makabu.