Saual wants Juan

[Pavlik]

Well, the criticism for Alvarez may have a little something to do with him getting a world title shot by having beat two 39 years olds in Baldomir and N'dou. What JMM stated about Alvarez was exactly right and I guess Alvarez's best comeback was to call out JMM to jump up 3 weight classes and somehow this is going to prove he is deserving to be a 154 world champion I don't think 154 Demetrius Andrade would get a drop of credit for beating the hall of famer 135 JMM. Lets be all the way real here. Alvarez's run to a title consists of buddying up with Oscar, best wins are beating 39 years old Baldomir, decisioning 39 years old N'dou, and for the 154 title fighting former welterweight Matthew Hatton. Its one thing to get that kind of ridiculous scheming favortism with a quiet tone but quite worse to get it and act like its defensible by proving it against a guy 3 weight classes below.

It's not as bad as it sounds though.

In reality he's being manouvered to a vacant strap in a division so devoid of talent that K9 Bundrage is a legitimate champion.

People are moaning about him getting a shot. But in a pragmatic sense he is the kind of guy we want to have a belt. It's an irony that if you want a fair system and go by rankings and don't allow p4p stars to fight for belts at catchweight you end up with complete non entities holding titles.

This title shot may not be strictly fair in a 'working your way through the rankings sense' but in every other way he's likely to be a better champ than the likes of Ryan Rhodes etc.

I'm sorry to say but nobody wants to see K9 Bundrage on HBO, or Ryan Rhodes.

The thing is, when they handpick and manouvre fighters to belts, they are generally making sure the best guys get the belts rather than having to saddle the sport with a mediocre, uninteresting guy who won't sell any tickets and the prime networks won't want to show.

Boxing is about events and you need fighters with star power to sell them.

It may not be strictly fair, but it's better for boxing that the exciting guys have belts and so can be marketed and hyped more effectively.

It's a cutthroat business.

Point taken It's all about marketability I just finished watching Ring Life with El Canelo, the kid has the tools and is quite good looking and is 20 lots of room to improve. If we are trying to beef up boxing after the Mayweathers and the Pacquiao's I guess it might as well be him.

[Kev]

Well, the criticism for Alvarez may have a little something to do with him getting a world title shot by having beat two 39 years olds in Baldomir and N'dou. What JMM stated about Alvarez was exactly right and I guess Alvarez's best comeback was to call out JMM to jump up 3 weight classes and somehow this is going to prove he is deserving to be a 154 world champion I don't think 154 Demetrius Andrade would get a drop of credit for beating the hall of famer 135 JMM. Lets be all the way real here. Alvarez's run to a title consists of buddying up with Oscar, best wins are beating 39 years old Baldomir, decisioning 39 years old N'dou, and for the 154 title fighting former welterweight Matthew Hatton. Its one thing to get that kind of ridiculous scheming favortism with a quiet tone but quite worse to get it and act like its defensible by proving it against a guy 3 weight classes below.

It's not as bad as it sounds though.

In reality he's being manouvered to a vacant strap in a division so devoid of talent that K9 Bundrage is a legitimate champion.

People are moaning about him getting a shot. But in a pragmatic sense he is the kind of guy we want to have a belt. It's an irony that if you want a fair system and go by rankings and don't allow p4p stars to fight for belts at catchweight you end up with complete non entities holding titles.

This title shot may not be strictly fair in a 'working your way through the rankings sense' but in every other way he's likely to be a better champ than the likes of Ryan Rhodes etc.

I'm sorry to say but nobody wants to see K9 Bundrage on HBO, or Ryan Rhodes.

The thing is, when they handpick and manouvre fighters to belts, they are generally making sure the best guys get the belts rather than having to saddle the sport with a mediocre, uninteresting guy who won't sell any tickets and the prime networks won't want to show.

Boxing is about events and you need fighters with star power to sell them.

It may not be strictly fair, but it's better for boxing that the exciting guys have belts and so can be marketed and hyped more effectively.

It's a cutthroat business.

Point taken It's all about marketability I just finished watching Ring Life with El Canelo, the kid has the tools and is quite good looking and is 20 lots of room to improve. If we are trying to beef up boxing after the Mayweathers and the Pacquiao's I guess it might as well be him.

It's an irony. People moan that the belts don't mean anything because they best guys don't hold them. But then they moan like fuck when they are offered to the top guys at the expense of some medicore non entity who would be destroyed by these higher profile fighters.

Like all those who moaned about Manny Pacquaio getting the belt fighting at 150. They seriously think it's more credible to have K9 Bundrage as a world champ than to see Manny be allowed a catchweight concession, it's such a weird way of looking at things.

Imo giving Alvarez the shot is a positive intervention to ensure the vacant belt doesn't fall into the hands of an undeserving fighter like Ryan Rhodes.

Rhodes will probably have a chance to fight for it, against Alvarez, which is fair to me. Alvarez is younger, had a great, albiet brief amatuer career, and is a hot prospect fighter. Give him first shot at the vacant strap to make it marketable and then let him defend against the number 1 ranked contender.

Just a sensible business decision. Common sense previals over lunacy imo.

[:::PSL:::]

That's why we have these so called disputed, undisputed, and "paper champ" Bilbo.

If you fight a low-level competition and win it like Alvarez is about to, then you'll be a paper champ.