By Miguel Rivera
2013 was a mixed year for former champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (42-1-1, 30KOs). He started the year with a twelve round decision victory over Austin Trout to unify the WBC/WBA 154-pound titles before a crowd of 40,000 fans at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. He came back in September to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the most financially successful fight in boxing history. The pound-for-pound king was too much for the 23-year-old boxer, and easily won a twelve round decision.
The longtime coach of Canelo, Jose "Chepo" Reynoso, is not distraught over the loss.
"Great champions have lost, [Julio Cesar] Chavez lost, and so did [Oscar] De La Hoya [Mike] Tyson, [Marco] Barrera, [Erik] Morales, Muhammad Ali, and the world did not come to an end. It is important to analyze the loss and not waste time mourning over it. We believed that Mayweather was going to stand and fight, exchange punches. We were prepared to attack, hit the body, but he changed his fight plan by going in and out. The truth, we could not find him [to land punches]," Reynoso said.
Oscar "Chololo" Larios, former world boxing champion and a member of the Team Canelo, says the young boxer is still a few years away from being at his best.
"Unfortunately Canelo was still missing one or two years going into this fight. He is still very young and in this fight we learned a lot. I saw him being very slow, he lacked speed. He needs to learn more and earn more experience, but there is no doubt he is a great fighter, one of the best in the world, and his only loss is to a phenomenon like Mayweather," stated Larios.
Canelo is going to return on March 8th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The two potential opponents include Alfredo Angulo and IBF 154-pound champion Carlos Molina.