On Showtime's All Access, a four-part documentary series chronicling the training camps and lives of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez leading up to their September 14th showdown, Oscar De La Hoya proclaimed "a new rooster will rise."
Alvarez looked up to his promoter and said "I can be your rooster." While Mayweather enters the fight an unbeaten 44-0-0 with 27 knockouts, this bout will likely prove his toughest test yet.
Alvarez brings youth to the table as a 23-year-old champion, but still has tremendous experience. He is also undefeated at 42-0-1, with 30 knockouts, registering just one fewer professional fight than Mayweather.
He is a much naturally larger and stronger man, but possesses unusually high skills for someone of his strength. He is known for powerful combinations thrown with pinpoint accuracy, which should test Floyd's renowned defensive prowess.
In his historically great career Mayweather has dealt with every skill in the book-he's beaten fast fighters like Shane Mosley and Zab Judah, power punchers like Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto, tacticians like Juan Manuel Marquez and brawlers like Robert Guerrero. In Alvarez, there are elements of all those fighters combined in one.
But can Canelo figure out proper toolbox to bring to the ring September 14th? How can the new rooster climb his way to the top?
Alvarez's best bet is to study the tapes of Oscar De La Hoya's performance against "Money" Mayweather, as well as Miguel Cotto's. De La Hoya achieved success against Floyd's nearly impenetrable shoulder roll by firing out quick, sharp jabs. Alvarez has the hand speed to do that, but must commit to it and not grow frustrated if he fails to connect flush early on.
Then, he must stalk Mayweather like Cotto did at times, and unleash powerful flurries. Cotto wound up losing his fight, but he made Floyd bleed out of the nose using this approach. Alvarez is younger, quicker, and more powerful than Cotto at this point and might stand a chance of inflicting real damage.
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