Andre Ward isn’t ready to go completely out of his way to call Canelo Alvarez a world-beater.
The four-division champion Alvarez’s stock took a hit earlier in May when he lost to undefeated light heavyweight titleholder Dmitry Bivol via unanimous decision. He bounced back in September to beat archrival Gennadiy Golovkin via unanimous decision in their trilogy bout.
The 32-year-old Alvarez (58-2-2. 39 KOs) is still the undisputed super middleweight champion, holding the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF, and Ring Magazine titles.
He accomplished the honors at 168 pounds by cleaning out the division in an 11-month span across four fights from Dec. 2019 until last November.
Alvarez outlasted the likes of Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, and Callum Smith to claim their crowns, handing each of the former champions their first professional losses along the way.
The Hall of Fame fighter and 2004 Olympics gold medalist Ward – now an analyst for ESPN – recently opined on the Mexican star’s resume with Max Kellerman on “Max on Boxing.”
“It’s tricky, it’s complicated. Because on the surface, [Alvarez has] fought everybody. He’s done everything. He’s taken all the risks. If you know what you’re looking for and you look at some of the names he fought, he doesn’t have a lot of prime names on his resume,” said Ward.
“That being said, I think Canelo is a great talent. I think he’s had a great career, and, of course, he’s a Hall of Famer. No doubt about that. But I think there’s a little bit more window dressing with his record than what people recognize with his career.
“I think his team has done a phenomenal job. You got to give Oscar De La Hoya a lot of credit. He doesn’t get a lot of credit for co-signing Canelo earlier in his career and then also helping with the matchmaking.”
Alvarez made his United States debut in 2010 and quickly became a star under the watchful eye of De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions.
In other weight classes, from 2011 to 2019, Alvarez beat the likes of Ward-nemesis Sergey Kovalev, as well as a group headlined by Daniel Jacobs, Gennady Golovkin (one draw as well), Julio César Chávez Jr., Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland, Erislandy Lara, Alfredo Angulo, Austin Trout, Josesito López, Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintrón, and Matthew Hatton, among others. Alvarez also lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Alvarez still wants to avenge his only other loss to Bivol.
A portion of the boxing public is clamoring for Alvarez to take a more intriguing fight – at least on paper – with undefeated upstart and former two-time 168-pound titleholder David Benavidez.
Ward doesn’t envision an Alvarez-Benavidez brawl happening anytime soon.
“They know when to cause Canelo to fight certain guys and when to stay away,” said Ward. “David Benavidez is not going to happen right now. It’s not going to happen because it’s too dangerous.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.