Let’s lay out the excuses for Canelo Alvarez right up front:• William Scull didn’t really come to fight, and when the opponent fails to engage, it’s difficult to look good.
• Scull’s style is awkward, at best.
• Alvarez has never had the lightest feet, even in his prime, and now he’s nearly 35 and a veteran of 67 professional fights, many of them against legends and flat-out killers.
Scull is neither of those. And Alvarez? He looked like an aging star Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in his battle match with Scull for the undisputed super middleweight championship.
Alvarez threw just 152 punches—not landed, threw—the second-fewest in a 12-rounder in CompuBox’s 40-year history. Only Devis Boschiero (130), against Mario Barrios in 2016, threw fewer.
It was dreadful. A complete slog to sit through. It almost made Friday’s dud between Devin Haney and Jose Ramirez look like an Arturo Gatti match.
Alvarez won a unanimous decision by scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 119-109, but he was not good. I had it 117-111 for Alvarez.
If Alvarez fights that way against Terence Crawford when they meet at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sept. 12 in the biggest fight of the year, he’s going to be the former super middleweight champion very quickly.
Crawford is 37 and, in August, didn’t exactly evoke Sugar Ray Robinson when he outpointed Israil Madrimov. Against that version of Canelo, though? Game, set and match for Crawford.
Now, Alvarez’s motivation will be dramatically greater against Crawford than it was against Scull, who by all rights had no business even getting the bout.
It was just the ridiculous rating system by the IBF that forced Alvarez to surrender that belt in 2023 so he could fight Jaime Munguia. Munguia was a more worthy opponent in the minds of everyone except those at the IBF.
So after winning the undisputed title, Alvarez had to vacate the IBF belt and Scull won it.
Leigh Dawney/Queensberry Promotions
Canelo Alvarez (R) faces off with Bud Crawford (back to camera).
Crawford (140, 147) is a two-division undisputed champion, a record he shares with Naoya Inoue (118, 122) and Oleksandr Usyk (200, heavyweight) in the four-belt era.
Alvarez will undoubtedly be more motivated against Crawford. Scull, by contrast, spent the night complaining to referee Kieran McCann about body shots that clearly landed clean.
A significant concern for the Alvarez team is that he was very slow and plodding against Scull. He threw one punch at a time, most of those body shots, and showed little explosiveness.
He blamed Scull’s choice to take a jog in the park as the reason the fight was rank.
“That’s why I don’t like to take those kinds of fights,” Alvarez said. “You know, [Scull] just came to survive and that’s what I don’t like.”
He wasn’t alone. He was paid millions to perform. Imagine the suckers who had to pay to watch it.
They’ll get their money’s worth in September, though, and with Dana White and TKO at that point on board to handle the production, the broadcast will be far better than the dreck that DAZN regularly produces.
Crawford’s genius in the ring will by itself make the fight more compelling. Scull knew he couldn’t afford to be hit with Alvarez’s powerful combinations. But he also knew that trotting circles and occasionally leaping out of the way isn’t going to win him a fight against an iconic figure like Alvarez.
Crawford will have a plan, and a good one. He’ll be at a significant size disadvantage, given that he’s never fought over 154 and Alvarez has fought at 175.
Alvarez has one of the great chins in boxing history and went 24 rounds with a prime Gennadiy Golovkin with nary a wobble. Crawford is a sharp puncher, but he likely won’t be the first to drop Alvarez.
But he’ll give Alvarez plenty of different looks and will make Alvarez repeatedly adjust during the fight. Alvarez made no adjustments Saturday and at one point was warned by McCann between rounds to fight.
Crawford was ringside and said Alvarez did what he needed to do to win. But he left believing more than ever that he’ll hear, “And new!” when the result is read on Sept. 12.
“I’m the best,” Crawford said.
Crawford is quick, and has every punch in the book. He thinks the fights as well as anyone since Floyd Mayweather and his footwork could give Alvarez all sorts of issues.
Alvarez has been one of the best for more than a decade, but that guy looked like a distant memory on Saturday.
Alvarez has always been a slow starter, but in years past, he found another gear and roared down the stretch. That gear was conspicuously absent on Saturday.
If he doesn’t find it in September, we may well look back at the Scull bout as the beginning of the end of the Alvarez legend.
Leigh Dawney/Queensberry Promotions
William Scull (R) throws at Canelo Alvarez during their bout Saturday for the undisputed super middleweight title.