Underdog Boxing: Chavez, Alvarez, and what’s wrong with boxing today

After legends such as Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez hang up their gloves for good, two younger boxers will be out to carry the cudgels for Mexican boxing. Both are undefeated and both will step into the ring this Saturday (Sunday, PHL time) to prove who the better fighter is. In a perfect world, these two would be facing each other. But in boxing’s current state, in the reality where common sense often takes the back seat to pride and pettiness, these two will be facing different opponents. Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., (46-0-1, 32 KOs) was under the limelight for much of his career. As the son and namesake of the Mexican legend, Chavez was put under the microscope early in his career. Although his first few fights were against opponents whose role was to pad his record, Chavez slowly transformed into a legitimate contender. He finally won a world title in his 44th professional fight, defeating Sebastian Zbik to become the WBC middleweight champion. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs) on the other hand experienced a meteoric rise in the past few years. The red-haired and fair-skinned Mexican has gained popularity because of his tremendous boxing ability and the fact that he sticks out like a sore thumb when he is with other Mexicans. He won the vacant WBC light middleweight title back in 2011 and has since successfully defended this title four times, the most recent of which was a unanimous decision victory over Shane Mosley. The boxing world has been salivating at the thought of these two fighters stepping into the ring against each other, but unfortunately that dream will have to wait a little longer. This Sunday, Chavez will hope to endure the toughest challenge he has ever faced in Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (49-2-2, 28 KOs). The Argentinean holds the third slot in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings behind Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Alvarez on the other hand will be facing Josesito Lopez (30-4-0, 18 KOs), who will be jumping two weight categories for the fight. Victor Ortiz was actually penciled as Canelo’s opponent but Lopez ruined those plans by defeating Ortiz early this year. Both fights look good on paper, although the Chavez-Martinez tiff looks more promising as the two are legitimate middleweights. Alvarez-Lopez may be a bit of a mismatch but because Alvarez is an extremely busy fighter, so this fight will also be worth watching. The problem here is that the promoters of these fight cards are forcing boxing fans to pick one of the two fights and skip the other. Not only will both boxing events be held on the same day, and at the same time, both will have Las Vegas as their host city. Top Rank will be staging its card, featuring the Chavez-Martinez bout, at the Thomas and Mack Center, while Golden Boy and their main event, Martinez versus Lopez, will be happening at the MGM Grand. It’s actually nice that Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions are trying to out-do each other, but there should be limitations. They should always think of the fans first before they think about their little competition. Instead, the promoters have made this less about the fights and the fighters, and more about their petty quarrel. Either promotion could have been ‘the bigger man and’ moved their fight date for the fans, but instead, they chose to be stubborn. They opted to stand up against their competition, instead of standing up for boxing fans. Big boxing fights have come few and far apart this year. This Sunday, the boxing world actually has two big bout on tap. Too bad we all have to miss one. - AMD, GMA News