Canelo Alvarez is showing signs of decline according to his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya.
Alvarez defended his super middleweight titles against John Ryder earlier this month after a wide unanimous decision victory over 12 rounds.
The Mexican superstar dropped Ryder in the fifth round and with the Briton suffering a broken nose early in the bout, many expected Alvarez to finish things off. However, Ryder not only lasted the distance, but surprisingly landed some power punches on Alvarez during the latter half of the fight.
Of course, it wasn't enough whatsoever, but it was still a surprising visual to see Alvarez not being as dominant as one would expect — especially against an opponent of Ryder's caliber no matter how game he was.
For De La Hoya, though, it's further proof that Alvarez is on the decline ever since his defeat to Dmitry Bivol last year.
“I’ve always said that he’s on the decline, especially after the Bivol loss because it takes a lot out of you,” De La Hoya told K.O. Artist Sports (via BoxingNews24). “This [performance against Ryder] reconfirmed my thought process. It reconfirmed the fact that Canelo, not that he’s getting old because he’s young, but he’s an old 33 for boxing.
“He’s had a lot of wear and tear. He started fighting at 15 years old. I just felt that he should have taken out John Ryder. You dropped him and had him hurt. His body language was really not there, and Canelo should have thrown a barrage of punches and stopped him. Fighting in that 18 x 18 ring, it was your advantage. He couldn’t move with his legs. His legs were slow. Those are signs from fighter to fighter of slowing down, of wear and tear.
In the end, De La Hoya's comments aren't him being bitter or putting Alvarez down considering the duo had an unceremonious breakup — it's just how life goes for just about every top level boxer.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. That’s how life goes,” De La Hoya added. “His career has been an amazing career. We’ve built something for him that is going to go down in history, and there’s no shame in it. Canelo’s performance obviously wasn’t what people expected.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how Canelo Alvarez fares should he fight Bivol in a rematch later this year or another high-level opponent.
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