By Sean Jones: Tim Bradley lit into Canelo Alvarez for swerving the fight fans wanted to see against David Benavidez and instead choosing to challenge an obscure cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu that he’s never even heard of.
Bradley says Canelo needs to stop with his “orchestrated” attempts to be great by cherry-picking champions.
In this case, Canelo picked the most beatable of the five cruiserweight champions. Canelo didn’t pick the dangerous cruiserweight champions Mairis Briedis or Lawrence Okolie.
Canelo went for the lowest hanging fruit, picking the weakest one to pad his resume, which is a move we’ve seen from the Mexican star repeatedly, with him facing the four paper champions at 168.
When Canelo moved up to 175, he chose the shot to pieces Sergey Kovalev to snatch his WBO light heavyweight title from him.
Bradley: Fans aren’t asking Canelo to go to cruiserweight
“It is a fight that they’re asking for. They’re [the fans] not asking for him to go up to cruiserweight to fight some dude we don’t know,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype on Canelo, choosing to challenge the little-known WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu next rather than facing David Benavidez.
“I don’t know nothing about no Makabu,” Bradley continued. “I don’t care what he is,” said Bradley when told that Makabu is the WBC cruiserweight champion.
“I don’t care who he is, but nobody knows who he is. Like I said, it’s an orchestrated greatness, bro,” said Bradley about Canelo’s move to go up to cruiserweight to cherry-pick a belt is superficial and utterly contrived.
It’s pathetic that Canelo is picking weak champions to win world titles rather than giving the fans the fights they want to see. Where’s the sense of obligation on Canelo’s part? I mean, he and his eagle-eyed trainer Eddy Reynoso have got to know the boxing world wants to see him fight Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Artur Beterbiev.
Those are the fighters fans want to see Canelo fight, and it’s baffling that he’s choosing to fight an obscure cruiserweight champion named Makabu. Sean Jones knows Makabu from watching him get blown out by an old Tony Bellew four years ago in 2016.
Bellew was near the end of his career, and he massacred Makabu in three rounds. Afterward, Bellew was blubbering on the canvas, as if he’d just created the cure for cancer instead of beating a ham & egger.
Fans want to see Canelo in a REAL fight
“Like stop already, bro. You’re undisputed, that’s great, but we want to see you in a real fight,” Bradley continued about Canelo. Benavidez, it’s a great fight [with Canelo] because he’s young, he’s durable Benavidez is going to be right there in his face.
“I would love to see that,” said Bradley when asked if he’d like to see Benavidez vs. Caleb Plant. “Benavidez, bro,” Bradley said when asked who he favors in a fight between Plant and Benavidez.
“Once you show me you check out once, you’re going to check out again, and it’s easy the next time,” said Bradley alluding to Plant mentally quitting against Canelo in the later rounds, talking him during the ninth round, and looking for words of encouragement from the Mexican star.
“As soon as the pressure comes on, you’re going to check out even easier,” said Bradley about Plant. “That talking in the fight. Do you need validation? I ain’t never talk to Manny Pacquiao like that in my life,” said Bradley.
Tim might want to see Benavidez vs. Plant, but it’s doubtful the boxing world wants to see that mismatch. Plant already quit against Canelo, so the fans aren’t going to want to see Benavidez waste his time with him. They’d rather see Benavidez fight Canelo or Jermall Charlo.