SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ, One of boxing’s biggest stars, returns tonight (May 4) to defend his undisputed super middleweight crown against fellow Mexican Jaime Munguia at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
However, this is not the fight most of us wanted to see Canelo involved in, with many wishing he had fought his undefeated rival David Benavidez instead. This now seems unlikely as on June 15, Benavidez will begin his light heavyweight campaign against seasoned Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Canelo vs. Mungia is a fight that promises to be entertaining, however. One of the reasons Canelo is such a big star is his boxing prowess and his generally friendly and entertaining style to watch. Mungia himself also comes to do the show. He has a more traditional “Mexican” style than the champion and rarely engages in a boring fight. I expect the two to mix together pretty well and the fight to be entertaining.
Alvarez is no longer quite at his peak and has shown signs of decline. He’s also not quite the demolition machine he was a few years ago, but he’s still a very good fighter. Mungia is on the other side of his career from Canelo and I think he is on the rise and continuing to improve. He’s not quite on his opponent’s level, however, and will most likely lose points in an entertaining battle.
We sometimes forget when preparing for Canelo’s fights that he had already failed a PED test in 2018 before his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin. This was brought up this week by his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya, who now promotes Munguia. Even if De La Hoya’s metaphorical hit was an attempt to ruffle Canelo’s feathers, it’s still a fact and a stain on Canelo’s career. This undermines his achievements and raises questions.
His excuse at the time was contaminated meat, a reason given by other Mexican athletes in the past. Someone like Canelo and the team he had around him would surely have been scrupulous in what he consumed and ensured that no meat was contaminated.
Whatever the reality, it is ironic that after De La Hoya brought up this topic, news came that one of his own fighters, Ryan Garcia, had tested positive for the banned substance Ostarine. This now raises questions about his recent win over Devin Haney, but since the story broke, Garcia has responded with jokes and conspiracy theories about the positive test.
This reaction reflects current sport quite well. In a year where the big fights that we want to see are taking place, sport is also becoming more and more of a laughingstock with situations like those of recent days. It’s not even a shock anymore when you hear about a great boxer failing a test, who will be next?
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