There has been growing talk that multi-weight great Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez might have already peaked in his boxing career, and former trainer turned pundit Teddy atlas is one of those who agrees, going so far as to say he is ‘overrated.’
Canelo turned professional aged just 15 and now, aged 33, he has had an incredible 63 bouts and fought 472 rounds. In that time, the Mexican has won multiple world championships in four weight classes from light middleweight to light heavyweight. In three of those divisions he has unified titles, and in two of them he has held linear honours.
Standout wins have come against Gennadiy Golovkin, Callum Smith, Sergey Kovalev, Danny Jacobs, Miguel Cotto and many more, with just two losses – one against Floyd Mayweather, and the other to Dimitri Bivol.
Despite that, recent showings such as a rare 12-round points victory against John Ryder and his inability to knockout a 40-year-old Golovkin in their trilogy fight in 2022 mean many think he is slowing down.
Speaking on The Fight, Atlas looked back to that fight and admitted Golovkin was not the fearsome middleweight he once was.
“Triple-G is beyond his time. He hasn’t fought since Canelo. That Canelo fight he did a lot better than people thought he would do. He went the distance. It showed me a lot of things. One is that GGG is at the end of his career, there is not much left beyond his character. He is not the same fighter. He is not Triple-G anymore.”
Atlas then said he saw Canelo’s performance against ‘GGG’ as a sure sign he is overrated and on the slide.
“[That fight] also showed me Canelo is overrated.
I know the Mexican fans weren’t waiting to hear that. But it did, it showed he couldn’t get rid of him at this point in his career. As much as a lot of people build him up, he should have got rid of him. It showed me Canelo is slipping. Whatever he was, great or almost great, whatever that level was, it’s a little less now. He’s slipping.”