By Stephen 'Breadman' Edwards

The Daily Bread Mailbag returns with Stephen 'Breadman' Edwards discussing the upcoming fight between Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez and Liam Smith, last Saturday's ending with Gennady Golovkin and Kell Brook, Roman Gonzalez becoming a four division champion and more.

Hi Bread,

Thanks for your last message. I have a few questions.

A friend and I are arguing about Canelo. I love the boxer, don't get me wrong but I think he failed to meet our expectations. I think he's a very good boxer, with many qualities. But I wasn't your view on his downside. I would say that considering his height and his style, plus the fact he slows down and doesn't fight dirty cause his really gifted and underrated as a pure boxer, he's gonna have a hard time growing older and facing stronger opposition. I find him short for a Super WW. Imagine for a MW and eventually for a Super MW.

For those reasons (I made it super short) I think he would have trouble against those guys. What do you think of the following match-ups ?

Jaccobs, Lemieux, Lee, Saunders, Eubank, Quillin ? That's for MW - Charlo 1 and 2, J-Rock, Lara 2, Soro, Andrade ? For super-WW.

Also, I know it won't happen that fast but what about Spence Jr ? I know it's early. But they are about the same edge and it seems to me Spence is going to naturally evolve to super-WW. The guy seems so good and probably beats all the best welters (including Thurman). Could you see Spence vs Canelo some day and what would be the outcome (considering Spence hasn't peaked yet).

Last thing. Canelo is a class above Smith, I agree. But do you see it as a tough match-up ?

It seems GBP took this fight thinking it would be easy. But knowing Smith, a young ambitious, unbeaten,  taller than Canelo, super conditioned and amazingly coached, used to spar the powerful Callum, I wonder if the night could be tougher than expected for the Mexican ? I see him gazing out at some point and Smith constantly marching on him, attacking the body. Could you see an upset and would you see this match as a lose-lose for Canelo ? Cause if he wins people be like : he was a nobody and came to Texas, etc. If Smith wins then it's horrible for Canelo.

Thank you very much !

Diego from France

Bread’s Response: Canelo will never be a super middleweight but I think he will blend in just fine at 160. Gene Fullmer, Dick Tiger, Emille Griffith and Marvin Hagler all did in better eras.

Sometimes the sum of tough fights take more out of you than the fight itself but I would favor Canelo to beat every middleweight you named. That’s not saying he beats them all consecutively but I think he beats them all on his best night.

Super Welterweight is where he has his problems. I would make Jrock and Andrade favorites to beat him. I would slightly favor Canelo over Lara and Charlo 1 and 2 55/45. And Michel Soro and Canelo is a 50/50 fight. Soro is nothing to play with.

Canelo vs Spence could be a super fight but they are too far apart in weight at this moment. Let’s see how the next year plays out.

Liam Smith is live in this fight but I think he is too limited in god given abilities to defeat Canelo. Smith will try hard and make a fight out of it but Canelo is just too talented for him.

I say Canelo wins 117-111.

Bread,

I'm curious about your overall perspective on Golvokin's power. I'll give you an idea of the particular factors I've been weighing and would love for you to chime in.

Golovkin definitely processes some of the game's most abnormally heavy hand hands- but I wouldn't classify him as a KO puncher per say.  When speaking of true KO power.  I'm thinking of guys who can hit you with one shot and you drop with the shakes. Over GGGs career sans Ishida, I can only recall maybe 3 fighters(out of 36) that he actually put to sleep with one punch like say a kovalev, wilder, or in the past tszu. The majority of his KOs are fighters taking knees or waive offs from the accumulation of punishment.

That being said I believe GGGs power/pop is severely overrated. I believe GGG has been able to stop opponents mainly due to timing speed, swarming behind the jab, and his ability to throw punches while moving. GGG has amazing balance for a "stiff euro-prototype"- But I've seen way too many fighters appear to not be too overly phased by his haymakers ala Lemieux in the beginning of the fourth round. That was a clean perfectly "torqued" shot--I've seen his training videos and It appears that he practices that particular leaping hook faithfully on the bag-- and Lemieux was completely surprised and off balanced when he took it. That's almost always a recipe for sleep or a at least a knockdown but Lemieux ate it.

Rosado speculated it was the wraps, Berto once said he thinks it his bone density, I'm curious as to what opinion you might have on the origin of his power. One things for sure GGG doesn't appear to be bothered when he punches particularly hard areas of the opponents head. For a guy who chops up opponents faces, ribs, and breaks eye sockets where's the truly concussive strength?

Ps. I thought Brook was the first to figure out not to crouch down against the ropes against GGG. G usually throws over hand hooks and rights that he curves downward on top of the opponents skull and forehead whenever they crouch down. Unfortunately, the broken eye socket probably influenced Brooks decision to cede the center of the ring where he made GGG Above average boxing ability and accuracy  look very regular. Also, I think GGG's reluctance to move up is he lacks confidence in a fight with opponent who could potentially out jab him.

Thanks.
James

Bread’s Response: I don’t believe GGG’s power is overrated one bit. He’s the hardest puncher in boxing. It’s extremely hard at the top level to hit a guy with one shot and the referee counts to 10. Even huge punchers only do that a handful of times at the top level.

I believe GGG has extremely dense and hard bones. So we agree on that. That’s why he’s able to punch fighters on the top of their heads and not hurt his hands. 99% of the fighters in the world will break their hands if they punched their opponents on the top of their heads. GGG also gets a great old school wrap from his coach Abel Sanchez.

Out of my categories for punchers I put GGG in the Heavy Handed Debilitator category. His lack of sword like speed may be why he doesn’t score the type of kos you seem thirsty for. Guys like Tommy Hearns are swordsmen. You don’t see his right hand because of the speed and blinding jab so when he hits you it’s like a sucker punch. It’s shocking, Where as GGG’s opponents are covering up and bracing for the onslaught.

GGG does not have to move up anywhere. The notion that he has to move up sounds ridiculous. He has 4 huge fights at 160. BJ Saunders, Chris Eubank, Canelo Alvarez and Danny Jacobs. If he runs that table he has a whole generation of huge junior middleweights who will middleweights by 2018. Hagler, Monzon and Fullmer never moved up. There careers turned out just fine. Hogg Wash.

Let’s talk about GGG. Is he as good as they say he is? What did you think of the fight and did you agree with the stoppage? There are whispers of GGG’s gloves being small. I know Gabe Rosado made some claims a few years back. Break it down for us Bread.

Bread’s Response: Some things I say will be a compliment to GGG, some things won’t but I will objective and fair.

GGG is a legitimately great fighter and in my opinion if he retired today he would be a HOF. He has not done enough to be an all time great but he has to go in the HOF. People today just don’t like greatness so they find fault in it at all cost.
GGG is looking to unify 4 titles. In this era that’s almost impossible. Only a great fighter could do that winning one title at a time. There is no matchmaking in the process. It’s just great fighting. WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders said he was not ready to fight him, remember.  WBC champion Canelo Alvarez allowed himself to be stripped before fighting him. Think about these things before you guys bombard GGG.

Kell Brook is the 1st fighter I have watched win a round clean on GGG. I have seen each one of his fights since the Proska fight. Now all of a sudden GGG is exposed. Newsflash. A top level welterweight will win 2 rounds from any middleweight in the world in the beginning of the fight. It’s not as big a deal as you guys think.

GGG does not have great defense but it’s not as bad advertised. His plus and minus ratio as far as punches he’s landed vs punches connected on him is second only to Andre Ward. That should tell you something. He hits a lot and gets hit way less. In my opinion fighters who used GGG’s style and have had great defense were Roberto Duran, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, Henry Amrstrong and a Prime Mike Tyson. That’s 4 in history. It’s extremely difficult to have a great defense when you are swarming your opponent throwing power shots. If GGG becomes to defensively conscience it will take away from his savagery.

In the Brook fight I do believe he loaded up too much and I think he’s better when he boxes his way to a ko like he did vs Curtis Stevenson and David Lemiuex. But GGG was in the UK, he was down on the cards and he chose to brutalize Brook. His plan worked for him.

Initially I didn’t agree with the stoppage. But I don’t want to second guess Kell Brook’s corner. They care for him differently than I do as a fan who was watching the fight. I saw a fighter in Brook who was holding his own and in my opinion he quietly hurt GGG. Look at the 2nd and 3rd rounds closely. GGG just kept a poker face and pressed on. In the 5th round Brook was being hurt and he was reeling but I don’t think he was out of the fight just yet. GGG was pushing some of his punches because he was over pressing and would have had to get a rest after that onslaught. Remember how he had a bad round 2 after coming out smoking in round 1. It takes time for the oxygen to replenish your muscles so they can re fire. I get the stoppage but from my view I think Brook had a shot at making history. There is a reason for a 60 second break in between rounds. It’s for recovery, assessment and rest. I would have really loved to see how GGG finished out round 5 and recovered in round 6. We will never know now.

It’s a testament to GGG’s greatness that in his most competitive fight in 5 years. His opponent’s corner was so fearful for their fighter’s health that they stopped the fight in 4 and half rounds without their fighter being knocked down and winning on the official scorecards. Let that sink in.

The glove issue is something to be researched. Before I go further I want to point out that GGG is one of the few top fighters who volunteer for VADA which is the best testing you can adhere too. He seems to be a clean fighter and I applaud him for that. But gloves are something different.

Without attacking GGG and discrediting his performances I think we should look the rules overall. I think there should be standards that all commissions go by. From my research companies are making custom made gloves to specifically fit a fighters hand. I don’t agree with that. I understand custom color gloves to match a fighter’s outfit but not custom made. There is a huge difference.

Because there are different companies who make gloves, each company will try to get an edge on the product so more fighters will wear their brand. I get that and understand that.  Youtube GGG vs Dominic Wade. They wore different brand gloves. I assume both sets of gloves weighed 10oz. Wade’s gloves looked to have at least an extra inch with of padding in the knuckles. That’s an extreme amount considering the gloves only weigh 10oz. Research….

Here is where the commissions come in. All 8oz and 10oz gloves should have a required guideline. There shouldn’t be a glove that weighs 10oz but the padding is distributed more in the wrist than it is in the knuckle area. The knuckle area in each glove should be required to have the same amount of padding across the board despite a difference in brand. Weighing the proper amount as far as ounces is not enough. Hopefully someone with a platform and influence in the commission can look into this. I have tried on and researched every brand of gloves that are used in major pro fights and I will tell you some differ as far as padding in the knuckle area…..

What a great weekend. Easter vs Commey, GGG vs Brook and Gonzales vs Cuadras. Which was the best fight? You were spot on in each prediction. Do you think the right guy won the decisions. Is Gonzales really better than Arguello? And what do you think of the middleweights who ducked GGG now calling him out since Brook had a few good spots?

Bread’s Response: This was a compelling weekend of boxing. Easter vs Commey was terrific. I don’t know if it was better than Gonzales vs Cuadras but I enjoyed it just as much. Congrats to Easter and Commey that was a great fight.

Brook vs GGG also had great action but because of the ending it won’t be viewed as a great fight. The ending was anticlimactic.

Roman Gonzales is a terrific fighter. He’s one of the top 10 fighters ever below 112lbs. He’s a great pressure technician. He has a great chin and one of the best gas tanks I have ever seen. I think he’s in his prime but not exactly at his peak. He did win his 4th title and Arguello only won 3. But winning titles from 105 to 115 is different than winning them from 126 to 140. Arguello fought in murderous era and he had to go up against Aaron Pryor to win his 4th. Cuadras can bump but he’s no Pryor. These things have to be kept in perspective. Arguello was also 31 and had over 70 fights when he fought Pryor. Gonzales is 29 with over 40 fights and showing slippage himself. I love Roman but it’s hard to assess all of his competition. He passes the eyeball test with flying colors. But the late 70’s version of Arguello who was destroying Bobby Chacon and Ruben Castillo is every bit as good on the eyes at Roman was against Juan Estrada. I think Roman may have to a do a little more to be greater than Alexis.

I don’t have a problem with Easter and Gonzales winning their fights. But if Commey and Cuadras had won the decisions I wouldn’t argue one bit. Both fights had about 4 swing rounds apiece. If you notice that the 3 fights this weekend had all undefeated fighters in their primes going at it. That’s what happens!

It’s laughable to me that middleweights took to social media calling GGG out. After ignoring him, asking for 3 times more than they ever made before and basically ducking him for the last two years. I don’t want to even mention their names. I hope Lara gets the payday because he was calling for GGG before Brook won 2 rounds. We shall see…

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