By Ryan Burton
Former three-division world champion Jorge Linares (45-4) was very impressed with the way Saul "Canelo" Alvarez boxed in his majority decision victory over Gennady "Triple G" Golovkin in September. With the win, Alvarez captured the WBA and WBC middleweight titles.
The Mexican superstar is looking at a different type of challenge in his next bout. On December 15th he will move up to the super middleweight division to face WBA champion Rocky Fielding at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The fight will be the first for Canelo under his new 11 fight pact with the DAZN streaming service that recently entered the US market. The total value of the package is reportedly at least $365 million.
Alvarez will be giving away a lot of size to Fielding but Linares believes that Canelo's superior boxing ability will lead him to victory.
"Fielding looks really tall and strong but Canelo is the best fighter right now. He is at the prime of his career right now. He has balance and has power. He can box. This is the best moment of his career," Linares told BoxingScene.com.
As for where he would rate Alvarez on the mythical boxing pound-for-pound list, Linares said he belongs at the top.
"I think he is the best fighter in the world now. He surprised me with the way he fought Triple G. I think that he is the best fighter," Linares stated.
Linares last fought in September when he made his super lightweight debut successful with a third round knockout of Abner Cotto. His previous fight was a 10th round knockout loss to Vasyl Lomachenko that will be in the running for Fight of the Year honors. Both fighters hit the canvas in the technical battle.
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter
