Saul Alverez, how good is he/can be?

I believe that he will be a world champion (a proper one) but don't think he is/will be good enough to mix it with the very best and win numerous belts and different weights. Your opinions???

He is making good progress so far and seems to be improving with every fight. Looks to have all the tools with no obvious weaknesses. Time will tell.

What makes you say you don't think he will be able to mix it with the very best?

The level he is at just now i would agree with most of what your saying, but i would hope he still has more to learn to become a better fighter yet.

For just 20 years of age he's extremely good and now has some solid wins under his belt.

People look at his number of fights and say he's being fed bums, but considering his age he's achieved an awful lot.

Not sure how far he can go, the next 2 years will be big as now he's a champ he'll be expected to take on better opposition on a consistent basis.

He'll surely improve though and he's got years till he perhaps peaks so could be very exciting.

If I can be the one to sound a slight air of caution the only area which we could perhaps do with knowing more about is his chin. Was rocked pretty badly by Cotto a few fights previous and although obviously he did not land with much thought Rhodes buzzed in at least once early doors.

However the positives would appear to far outweigh the concerns. Was far more impressed with him against Rhodes than Hatton as for me he did the better job against the better opponent. Showed great speed and variety, stayed in range well without shipping too much and his maturity and discipline belied his age.

It's the norm for Mexicans to turn pro early and so by the time they are 20 they have a chance of maybe having 40 odd fights under there belt, i've been very impressed with some of his recent opponents and as long as he doesn't go backwards i'm pretty happy with the level of opposition he's facing at the moment. What will be interesting is when he steps it up a level again, as long as he continues to improve he can go on to great things.

Very good fighter, who is building up a good set of names of his resume - the next 2 years will tell if he is the real deal.

On a side note - I wonder how many ginger haired world champions we have had in boxing.

Daz probably the finest would be Bob Fitzsimmons, Saul has some way to go before he matches Ruby Rob though

rowley wrote:Daz probably the finest would be Bob Fitzsimmons, Saul has some way to go before he matches Ruby Rob though

Blimey - just saw a picture of Bob. He was as red as you can get!!

I bet people didn't rip him for it to his face! I wonder if he had freckles as well.

Daz it gets worse apparently he often used to wear pink britches to fight in, but as you rightly say not a bloke I would mock for it in a hurry.

Only seen three fights, Cotto, Hatton and Rhodes.

He looked poor against Cotto but dug very deep after the early scare (was on dodgy legs for a little while). Thought he again looked poor against Hatton.

This brings us to Rhodes where he fought a very good fight and seemed to have it all.

Hard to tell really, would usually say he's only 20 still learning etc etc but despite his young age he is pretty much a veteran in terms of the number of his fights.

The Rhodes fight made me rate him a lot higher, prior to this I felt he was very overated. Maybe he needs the bigger fights to raise his game though.

Hopefully now he's a champ he will get tested more.

Dazstarr wrote:Very good fighter, who is building up a good set of names of his resume - the next 2 years will tell if he is the real deal.

On a side note - I wonder how many ginger haired world champions we have had in boxing.

Hatton is definetly a copper n0b. Only one I could think of so I googled. Found one on eatsideboxing (they use dreadful language on that site) that mentioned Harry Lewis and Danny 'Red' Lopez. Also found this topic discussed last year on 606

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/F15713587?thread=7197473&show=50 - featuring the late great salfordviking I see....

Michaels, Sean wrote:

Dazstarr wrote:Very good fighter, who is building up a good set of names of his resume - the next 2 years will tell if he is the real deal.

On a side note - I wonder how many ginger haired world champions we have had in boxing.

Hatton is definetly a copper n0b. Only one I could think of so I googled. Found one on eatsideboxing (they use dreadful language on that site) that mentioned Harry Lewis and Danny 'Red' Lopez. Also found this topic discussed last year on 606

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/F15713587?thread=7197473&show=50 - featuring the late great salfordviking I see....

AHAHAHAHA Fanta Pants!! Thats made my day!!

he might end up to be a star of the sport but that is not necessarily due to him being a gigantic talent, could be due to lack of opposition to beat him. I see him being pretty big over the next few years, he has good attributes. He can easily win belts at 154 and 160because martinez will be gone in a couple oears, chavez is terrible and aa is deflated after his ebating at 168. the 154 division only has a couple decent fighters, he probably beat cotto next year as cotto is not a natural light middle

Seanusarrilius wrote:he might end up to be a star of the sport but that is not necessarily due to him being a gigantic talent, could be due to lack of opposition to beat him. I see him being pretty big over the next few years, he has good attributes. He can easily win belts at 154 and 160because martinez will be gone in a couple oears, chavez is terrible and aa is deflated after his ebating at 168. the 154 division only has a couple decent fighters, he probably beat cotto next year as cotto is not a natural light middle

A lot of people seem to have discounted Paul Williams. He was in most people's p4p top 5 last year

i know, Pwill can come again and your right sean we shouldnt discount him after one bad loss. But until the last memory we have off him is no longer that brutal ko people are going to do that. I think the prob is as well, no matter how good he might be i cant imagine anyone getting all exited about him and alvarez in there together, but maybe i am wrong and i know we shouldnt care how much of a draw he is.

SugarRayBray wrote:He is making good progress so far and seems to be improving with every fight. Looks to have all the tools with no obvious weaknesses. Time will tell.

What makes you say you don't think he will be able to mix it with the very best?

I think he lacks variety and hasn't fought anyone who has tested him, he may well be able to mix it with the best in a few years. Also the fact that he has had as many fights as he has at such a young age is a concern. He could have physical and psychological problem before he reaches his prime.

Also heard that a mexican billionaire wants him to fight Manny, but I doubt Manny will fight above 147 which means he has to come down and he would get annihilated by Manny.

I rate him and think he will grow to be a solid world champion.
For me i think he lacks the power for his fighting style to become elite.
He reminds me somewhat of cotto in having decent but not amazing hand speed and having a punch but not elite punching power.

He does seem to be improving quickly though so who knows...

Big worry is if he stays focused or not, the rhodes fight had millions of viewers in mexio and he has millions of fans which can always become a problem.

After a few defences against contenders should give us a better idea though

I'd follow the majority on this one and say that he's too young to make a solid assessment of what his punching power may end up being like, but I don't really see the number of fights he's had being a problem I know he's been put on the floor before but most of his fights have been one way traffic really, anyway as has already been said time will tell..