A Detailed Article Regarding Canelo Alvarez

[DavilaJones]

I was browsing through the net and I came across this:

Canelo Alvarez and the search for the next Oscar De La Hoya - Grantland

[TitoFan]

Excellent article! Only it should be named: "The Canelo Hype Job... Exposed!"
The author can sure ramble on.
But here's a few choice excerpts from the article:


Every conversation about Canelo starts and ends with red hair and he must know how hair opens up a back door to discuss the real issue: His very, very good looks. So, let's talk hair and let's talk square chins and broad shoulders and a face of mean, compact symmetries that evoke Marky Mark during the underwear period. Let's talk Televisa, the Mexican network with dozens of beautiful news anchors, telenovela actors, and the TV home for the entire Canelo Alvarez media empire. Let's talk about why boxing needs Canelos and the decade-long search by Oscar De La Hoya for the next Oscar De La Hoya. Let's talk about the biggest hype job since Gerry Cooney and how a 23-year-old boxer from Guadalajara has simultaneously become the Great Mexican Hope, the Great White Hope, and the Great White Mexican Hope.




Ouch! The "biggest hype job since Gerry Cooney". That had to hurt.





After a successful amateur career, Canelo turned pro at the age of 16 and quickly built up the sort of résumé that fits a young, handsome contender. His first 12 opponents, fought over the course of approximately 19 months, had a combined record of 16-27. He went 11-0-1 during this period, with 10 fights ended by knockout. None of this is unusual. Promising fighters, especially 15-year-olds, must be built carefully. Televisa, one of the most watched TV networks in all of Latin America, took notice and began to build up the Canelo brand, mostly on the oddity of his red hair and his movie star good looks.
Then came a string of opponents who were one or two degrees from respectability. Canelo fought Miguel Cotto's older, much smaller brother, who almost knocked Canelo out in the first round. He knocked out a dried-up corpse who was calling himself Carlos Baldomir. He won a decision against Ricky Hatton's younger brother. He beat the dude who came in third place on the reality show The Contender. As his star rose in these arguably competitive fights, Canelo was offered his own telenovela (he turned it down) and dated a former Miss Universe turned Televisa star named Marisol Gonzalez.



I love this guy! Note the parts in bold. The "Canelo brand". Canelo fighting dried-up corpses (much like JCC Jr.). The dude who came in 3rd place on The Contender. Damn... this is better than stand-up.




Torres referred to Canelo as a "joke" and said most people within the Mexican community agreed. The show came to its climax when the great Julio Cesar Chavez called in and said, "I think Canelo has the talent, the skills, the power, and he is on his way up, but [what] I truly believe — and I always say things the way I think — is that at the moment you guys at Televisa have created a monster by way of publicity."
"He is just a product of TV," Chavez continued. "You make people believe that he is Superman and he is not."




Hell..... even some Mexicans know better. He's a "product of TV", says Chavez Sr. In a bit of irony, since his own son was coddled from Day One.





"I had the women fans and attracted them into the sport of boxing," De La Hoya said. "Canelo's doing the same thing, but the difference is that when the male fans came to see me fight, they wanted to see me get beat because of how I conducted myself. In my career, I was always concerned with saying the right thing, even when the right thing was actually the wrong thing to say. The fight fan doesn't want that. He wants someone honest, someone who they can respect. Canelo, because he doesn't say much and just works hard, has converted the male fan who wanted to see me lose over to his side."





Finally, the two cents from the Golden Fake himself. "Ohhhh... Canelo's just like me... 'cause we're both so handsome. We bring women into boxing. But men wanted me to lose, because I was sooooo good looking. Pssssst..... how's my makeup?"

This shit's priceless.

[TitoFan]

Jay Caspian Kang can ramble on with the best of them... but so much of this article rings true now more than ever.
Good read.