Legendary trainer turned analyst, Teddy Atlas, has claimed that one of the modern-day greats has always been ‘overrated’ in the sport and doesn’t compare to the legends from his country.
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has been the ‘face of boxing’ for a number of years now, becoming a four-division world champion and one of the greatest non-heavyweight commercial draws in the sport’s history.
However, the Mexican has always had his doubters who argue that some of his top wins came by controversial split-decisions, and that his record was not as good as it looked on paper.
One of these critics is Teddy Atlas, who trained Michael Moorer to a world title in 1994 and had spells in the corner of the likes of Wilfred Benitez, Barry McGuigan, Tim Bradley and Alexander Povetkin.
Whilst breaking down Canelo’s recent points decision victory over John Ryder on his podcast, ‘The Fight’, Atlas said Canelo’s resume isn’t comparable to other Mexican boxing icons.
“Canelo has always been overrated. Now, that doesn’t mean that he is not a real good fighter, but he is not the greatest Mexican fighter of all-time.”
“He is not the greatest Mexican fighter, he is overrated, he probably lost to [Erislandy] Lara, he lost twice to Triple G [Gennady Golovkin]. I know it’s old news, it is old history, he lost the first two [against Golovkin], especially the first one, he lost to Mayweather, every round, except for with that judge who should be in jail.”
“If you just look at his résumé, it is not even close to the résumé of your great Mexican warriors. There are so many of them, that doesn’t mean that he is not a real good, solid fighter, who didn’t progress as the years went on, he did progress, he got better and better, but I think he’s sliding back.”
Following his win over Ryder, Canelo now appears to be focused on rematching Dmitry Bivol for the light-heavyweight title, rather than face his super-middleweight countryman, David Benavidez.