Before the days of fancy foreign imports, Cadillacs were the gold
standard. A genuine status symbol, Cadillacs indicated wealth and refinement. Although Cadillacs certainly didn't accelerate like muscle cars and it took them a while to go from 0 to 65, they were the smoothest ride on the
road. With a powerful engine and superior craftsmanship, 85 miles per hour felt
like 40.
About 10 years ago I was in Southern California and all that was
left at the LAX rental lot was one of those Cadillac sedans that could have
passed for a small boat. After the initial snickering of driving around posh
L.A. in a grandpa mobile, I took that Caddy on the 405 and suddenly I
understood. There was a certain majestic feeling of cruising the
freeways while barely touching the pedal. Gliding around town, I felt a
certain panache.
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez was the Cadillac in
the ring on Saturday. Barely breaking a sweat, overcoming an opponent in Daniel Jacobs who
was taller, bigger and more athletic, Canelo gently put his foot on the gas
without much of a care in the world. In the final rounds of the fight, with the
bout seemingly in balance, Canelo was still cruising, finishing strongly, while
Jacobs fought tentatively because his "check engine" light had switched
on.
To extend the car analogy, if Canelo was the Cadillac on Saturday
– regal, high-performing, dependable – then Jacobs was an Audi from the '80s –
sleek, decent acceleration, cool gadgets and toys, but ultimately lots of time
spent stuck in the shop for needed repairs.
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| Photo Courtesy of Ed Mullholland |
With the fight potentially on the table in the final third, Jacobs
was still tinkering. Although he had so many toys to play with, he couldn't
settle on a style or an approach that would get the best of Canelo when he
needed it most. Furthermore, he didn't really go for it in the championship
rounds. Canelo countered beautifully in the 11th, often against the ropes, and
the 12th wasn't a definitive round for either boxer. As the "away"
fighter and well aware of Canelo's history of favorable scores from the judges,
Jacobs needed to do more.
Overall it was a strange fight, not necessarily a bad one, but a
bout that won't soon be remembered. To switch to a baseball analogy for a
second, both fighters were hitting singles, a few doubles and quite a few lazy
pop ups to right field. Neither fought with much urgency or had success imposing himself consistently.
Canelo was correctly awarded the fight on the scorecards, winning
via unanimous decision 115-113, 115-113 and 116-112, but it was not one of his
better performances. He didn't bite down and slug it out like he did against
Golovkin or track down an elusive target as he had against Lara. There were
very few menacing power punches, like the ones that dropped Trout and
stopped foes such as Kirkland and Khan. On balance, he was more accurate,
sharper and more consistent.
With all of that said, Jacobs certainly had his moments. He
neutralized much of Canelo's offense and didn't let him fire off too many of
those million-dollar combinations that get the crowd oohing and
aahing. In the ninth he landed a pulverizing hook that was the
single best shot in the fight. Jacobs switched from orthodox to southpaw often, changing
looks and the style of the fight, never giving Canelo sustained periods of momentum. He also worked the head and body well at
times, having some success driving Canelo back to the ropes.
In a number of ways Jacobs fought his fight. He was never hurt. He
was able to move in and out, incorporate lateral movement and keep Canelo's
ferocity in check. To my eyes, he had to dig deeper in fights against Golovkin
(in which he lost a close decision) and Derevyanchenko (in which he squeaked by
with a win). But he ultimately might have been lulled by Canelo's modest approach
to the fight. Canelo didn't really push Jacobs and in turn Jacobs didn't push
himself harder than second gear. As a result, Jacobs lacked intensity for much
of the first half of the fight, choosing to dip his toes into the bout instead of
diving right in.
With all of Canelo's myriad offensive weapons and combinations, what
perhaps contributed most to his win were single jabs. At mid-range Canelo
surprisingly had the faster hands and his shorter, more direct shots landed
with more impact. Canelo's sharp left stick continually snapped Jacobs's head
back at points in the fight and while his landed jabs didn't lead to scintillating
action, they were the definition of clean, scoring blows. Canelo did sprinkle
in left hooks and straight rights to the body, but his jab won him the fight.
However, let's not pretend that Saturday was Canelo at his best.
So many of the rounds were close – 1, 3, 5, 10, 12. Canelo won the majority of
these rounds, but a Jacobs victory wasn't beyond the realm of possibility.
Canelo was in cruise control throughout the fight, and it was enough on the
judges’ scorecards to win, but where was his desire to go for the jugular, to
confirm his greatness? More often than not, he was happy enough to nick rounds,
seemingly assured that it would be enough. It proved to be a winning approach
on Saturday, but not a particularly inspiring one.
As for Jacobs (and head trainer Andre Rozier), at a certain point a
fighter has to understand his strengths. Jacobs often switches from orthodox to
southpaw during a fight, but I never have a sense of purpose with the move
like I do with Terence Crawford. Crawford switches to take away an opponent's
straight right, or to remain more defensively responsible. Jacobs will go
southpaw for a round or two and then revert back, like he's trying out things in
the gym. Crawford understands what he needs to do win and what tactic will take
him there. If something is working he sticks with it. I don't get the same
feeling from Jacobs and Rozier. Jacobs is a capable and versatile fighter, but
he doesn't have a firm understanding of what he needs to do to win. (And it
wouldn't hurt if he had more of "Bud" Crawford's killer instinct as
well.)
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| Photo Courtesy of Ed Mullholland |
For Canelo the gravy train continues. At 28 he has already
defeated many of the top challengers of his era. He is a bona fide star in a sport with few of them. He has
every punch in the book, a high ring IQ, and a willingness to
improve. Clearly he's among the top fighters of the world, but he sure does give opponents chances.
As good as Canelo is, many, perhaps the majority of fight fans, believe that Golovkin defeated him twice. Others thought that Lara or Trout did
enough to prevail over him. Whether or not Canelo won these fights is not the
point I'm trying to make right now. Ultimately, his bouts against top
opposition have all been competitive. Several have been coin flips, and
his side happened to come up. In a legitimate enterprise, if you toss a coin enough times eventually the other side will land. Perhaps Saturday's fight
against Jacobs wasn't exactly a coin flip. On second watch I thought that
Canelo won seven rounds, as two of the judges did. But this is a subjective
sport, and it's conceivable to cobble together seven rounds for Jacobs, or Trout,
or Lara, or Golovkin. Canelo's cruise control was just enough to get the job
done on Saturday's scorecards. Certainly he had more to give if needed, but his
self-satisfaction in the ring was a bit underwhelming. The scorecard gods won't
support him forever.
***
In the second round of the DAZN broadcast of the fight, analyst
Sergio Mora suggested that Jacobs turning southpaw was a wise tactic. When Mora
and Jacobs fought previously, Jacobs had knocked down Mora in the southpaw stance. Again when
Jacobs switched in the fifth, Mora asserted that it was a good decision. By the
ninth round, Mora stated that one reason that Jacobs was losing the fight was his ineffectiveness in the southpaw stance. In the 10th round, after
Jacobs just had his best rounds of the fight, Mora suggested that Jacobs was
making a last hurrah stand, a comment made when a fighter makes one final push before getting stopped.
To my eyes, Jacobs was never seriously hurt throughout the fight.
Brian Kenny, DAZN's play-by-play man, stated after each of the
first three rounds that the action was close and perhaps could be scored either
way. Jacobs performed well in rounds seven, eight and nine, but by then Kenny was
already saying that it was a vintage Canelo performance and that Jacobs seemed
adrift in the fight. He believed that there was a huge gulf in class between
the two fighters. Conceivably, Jacobs could have been down 5-4 after nine
rounds (or even, if bending over backwards, slightly ahead). As Chris Mannix's
score started to tighten in the back third of the fight, Kenny stated that the
fight didn't feel close at all. Kenny, perhaps overcompensating, realizing that the bout may have been closer than he was seeing it, then said that Jacobs had a strong 11th, when that was clearly one of Canelo's best rounds of the fight.
Needless to say, Mora and Kenny didn't really know what they were
watching on Saturday. Kenny was a complete homer for Canelo, the crown jewel of
DAZN's boxing program. Shots that were clearly blocked by Jacobs were called
emphatically for Canelo. When Canelo was doing very little offensively at certain points in
the fight, Kenny compared Canelo's defense to Floyd Mayweather's.
Kenny asserted that Canelo was at his peak and few had a chance to beat him
while he was in such fine form, but then why was Canelo just edging rounds?
It was an awful broadcast from DAZN. To be fair, awful broadcasts
in boxing are frequent occurrences; 99% of the time they don't affect my scoring
of a fight. But Canelo-Jacobs was different. My agitation while watching the broadcast may have led to some bad decision making. To my eyes, the DAZN crew ignored or discredited much of Jacobs's work while every twitch of Canelo's muscle fiber was praised; I grew even angrier. Although I
had picked Canelo to win, I knew I wasn't watching an excellent version of
him on Saturday. He was adequate, capable, but less than enthralling. I started to overcompensate for Jacobs.
Initially I scored the bout 116-112 for Jacobs, but had it for
Canelo on second viewing 115-113. Watching the fight live, I was too eager to
give Jacobs the 12th. The 10th was another round for Canelo that flipped
for me when I re-watched it. Ultimately, I had an off night, which
happens, but I'm certainly not thrilled about it. Canelo was just a little bit
sharper and more consistent. He built up several small advantages in the fight
that demanded close attention. Jacobs did perform much better than the broadcast
indicated. He deserved more respect. But he
didn't win.
And with Kenny and Mora, the fans aren't winning either. DAZN's broadcast needs a major overhaul. Big fights should feel like a legitimate sporting contest not shameless propaganda for the favorite son. Canelo was a deserved winner on Saturday, but he was pushed, challenged and in a competitive fight, and DAZN's broadcast was too enamored with its meal ticket to call it square.
