EDITOR’S LETTER
Alvarez proved he was untouchable in 2018
In many ways, 2018 was Canelo’s year
THE year 2018 was when heavyweight boxing re-established itself as the most interesting division in the sport. It’s easy to get lost in the Miracle of South Figueroa Street, where Tyson Fury – three years after a failed drug test and an excruciating battle with depression – rallied from the brink against Deontay Wilder inside the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But we shouldn’t forget that Anthony Joshua, still only 22 fights old, made solid progress himself with two victories against some serious opposition.
Cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk’s year was even better. He will now join the heavyweights after following the perfect procedure for moving up – he cleared out his own division first. The Ukrainian’s inclusion sets up an unmissable 2019 for the land of the giants.
In many ways, though, 2018 was the year of Canelo Alvarez. It was when he announced himself as the king following Floyd Mayweather’s departure. The year he was invited, just like his predecessor, to dig his fingers into the sport and grab it by the scruff of the neck.
Unquestionably one of the most talented fighters out there (without that talent he wouldn’t have been granted such control), he’s also one of the jammiest after seeing his failed drug test result in a minor six-month suspension. While I’ve been criticised for labouring the point, it’s such a shame the sport of boxing did not make an example of their leading superstar.
Instead, seven months after clenbuterol was found in his system, he scored a contentious victory over middleweight boss Gennady Golovkin, then ended the year calling himself a ‘three-weight world champion’ after trouncing Rocky Fielding and taking his secondary WBA super-middleweight belt. But Callum Smith has the WBA title and a far more convincing claim to 168lbs supremacy than Alvarez, or Fielding before him. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said it all after his charge’s latest win: “I’m still a little wary about putting him in with the best at 168lbs.” Wary of putting him in with the best, yet they still have the audacity to call him world champion.
So, while it’s easy to admire Alvarez’s exquisite skills and fan-friendly style – and I do – it’s just as easy to find his success in 2018 a little grating. Add his record-breaking $365m deal with DAZN to his haul, a deal that will allow him to fight pretty much whomever he chooses, and you have the biggest ‘Just Say Yes’ drugs campaign going. What a shame.
But to blame Canelo for playing the sport for all its worth would be pointing your finger at the wrong person. It’s time to investigate who fighters choose to get advice from when it comes to the issue of drugs. The Nevada State Athletic Commission and the sanctioning bodies also recognised the money to be made from the Canelo franchise and decided not to keep him on the sidelines for too long. Even Golovkin shouldn’t scream too loudly about getting a rough deal in their September rematch. He got paid handsomely to risk it all against Alvarez in Las Vegas, and after their draw in 2017, he can’t claim he wasn’t warned, either.
The WBA did not have a stellar campaign. Their President Gilberto Mendoza Jnr keeps churning out the bogus titles and mind-boggling soundbites. When he declared, before any hearing had taken place, that Canelo’s failed test would make the Golovkin rematch even more lucrative, he should have been sacked on the spot. Yet the irony of criticising him is the fact he was right.
Because money makes the boxing world go around. That’s never going to change with so many making money from the efforts of the fighters. Investments will be protected, cheats will find loopholes to prosper. And without that money, let’s not forget, we would not have the grand events, the brilliant athletes and the epic fights.
So we will champion the spate of glorious showdowns 2018 gave us and look ahead to more of the same. But to do so with a clean conscience, we must also ignore certain inevitabilities of this business.
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