As Canelo Alvarez faces Jaime Munguia in thrilling bout, why does Mexico keep churning out so many exciting champs?
PUTTING two menacing Mexicans in the same ring is as dangerous as lighting the touch-paper to a stick of gelignite – an almighty explosion is the only outcome.
Canelo Alvarez, worshipped God-like in Guadalajara, defends his WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO world super-middleweight titles against countryman Jaime Munguia on Saturday.
Mexico is famous for many reasons – among them its indigenous heritage, Tequila, Mariachi bands and tacos.
But discerning boxing fans fall in love with the country because it constantly produces elite world champions whose outstanding talents hold them in awe.
Lace a pair of gloves on men south of the border and they fight with such a fierce intensity it’s as if they all have the blood of the nation’s revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata coursing through their veins.
Those lucky enough to have been ringside to see the heart-stopping trilogy between Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, two featherweights who fought each other to a standstill more than 20 years ago, will die happy.
Rafael Herrara against Ruben Olivares and Carlos Zarate’s four-round blitz of Alfonso Zamora, though they took place more than 50 years ago, are still talked about when the margaritas start being poured in the barrios.
If Canelo’s battle with Maguia is only half as exciting as those epics, the 20,000 in Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena will get their money’s worth.
So why does Mexico keep churning out so many exciting world champions?
The simple answer is extreme urban poverty.
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When I covered my first fight in Mexico City in 1967, wherever I went there were bare-fisted kids sparring with each other in the streets.
Artur Hernandez, one of Mexico’s most successful managers, employed six full-time trainers at his downtown gym.
He told me, when they opened the doors every morning, there were dozens of youngsters with their sneakers wrapped in newspaper pleading for an opportunity to spar with the pros to earn a few pesos – no better breeding ground for future greats.
I have been blessed with having seen Latino legends Barrera, Olivares, Vicente Saldivar, Julio Cesar Chavez and Salvador Sanchez – tragically killed at 23 when he crashed his Porsche – in the flesh.
Alvarez’s record is mind-boggling – he’s won world titles from light-middleweight to light-heavyweight, has lost just two of his 64 contests and has unified three divisions.
So he more than deserves to be included in such exalted company.
Canelo, 33, has KO’d 39 of his opponents, several with a Mexican speciality they call El Gancho Al Higado – a liver punch.
Liam Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith, three of the eight British fighters who have tangled with him, will verify how much that blow hurts.
It isn’t surprising he’s a massive 1/6 to beat Munguia, but in several of his recent victories he appeared to be slowing down and is certainly less fearsome than when he was in his 20s.
Alvarez’s last four fights have gone the full twelve rounds and he hasn’t knocked out anyone for three years which must give Munguia a confidence boost.
Canelo for years has been considered pound-for-pound the best fighter on the planet – but according to some pundits has dropped down the pecking order behind Terence Crawford and Japan’s Naoya Inoue.
Munguia, 27, a former WBO light-middleweight champion, has never met anyone in Alvarez’s league but he is quite a handful – unbeaten after 43 fights, he’s scored 34 KOs.
He never stops throwing punches from every angle and in his last fight he stopped Londoner John Ryder in nine rounds – something Alvarez couldn’t do when they met twelve months ago.
If jolting Jaime, a Tijuana terror, should overturn Alvarez it would be a far greater sensation than Ryan Garcia putting unbeaten superstar Devin Haney on the deck three times before outpointing him two weeks ago.
Yet as unlikely as it seems, it could happen.