Via Dan Ambrose: Shawn Porter left unimpressed with what he saw from IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev with a 9th round knockout win over Marcus Browne on December 17 and he is now predicting one “EASILY“Win for Canelo Alvarez if he moves up or down 175 to challenge the Russian boxer.
Porter attributes Beterbiev’s ninth two-time knockout victory over America’s Olympian Browne in 2012 to the American, making it easy for him to stand still from the fifth round onwards.
Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has yet to say whether he will move up to 175 to continue after Beterbiev and the other two light heavyweight champion’s world championship titles.
Without explaining why Canelo did not pick Beterbiev or David Benavidez, Porter saw this as a slam dunk win for the Mexican star.
Hearn wants Canelo to fight at 175th in 2022
Advertiser Eddie Hearn said he will speak with Canelo and his coach Eddy Reynoso to try to convince them to focus on becoming undisputed at 175 in 2022.
Now, Canelo is planning to take on WBC cruiser class champion Ilunga Makabu on May 7, a move that could make the Mexican star the fifth-place world champion if he wins.
Former IBF/WBC weight champion Porter says Canelo’s superior hand speed and counterattack will help him beat lower Beterbiev (17-0.17 KOs) and overtake him by a margin. 2-1.
Porter did not say how Canelo would keep Beterbiev. As we saw in the Russian boxer’s victory over Browne and Oleksandr Gvozdyk, he puts pressure on opponents, forcing them to defend continuously and deal with his powerful tackles.
Beterbiev’s inner fighting ability will be a new experience for Canelo because none of the people he has fought with in his career have any close combat abilities.
Normally, when Canelo was inside, he would get better opposition, but it would be a different situation than Beterbiev.
Canelo will be hit very hard in the head and torso. It is unclear how long he will last under the relentless head and body attack from Beterbiev.
Porter says Betterbiev looks unskilled
“He had to turn sports back on because he was cut,” Shawn Porter told Podcasts of Porter Way on Beterbiev, more fighting was needed after he was cut in the fourth round by a headbutt with Browne.
“I don’t know what was said in [Beterbiev] but we all know if we bleed before the end of four rounds, it’s going to be a zero contest. So I feel immediately [Beterbiev went on the attack of Browne].
“Is it the first round or the second round? I think in the second round, this guy [Beterbiev] lurking with so much power, and I know what it can do to you both physically and mentally.
“I’m like, ‘Okay,’ but I I don’t see much skill, I don’t see much speed, and I don’t see many punches [from Beterbiev] in the first round,” said Porter.
Beterbiev possesses the kind of power of George Foreman that he doesn’t look like he throws much force, but in reality, he lands with enormous power.
The real issues for Canelo are upper body punch, internal fighting and the constant pressure that Beterbiev will put on him.
Canelo’s fitness is below par, greatly limiting his punch output and forcing him to get plenty of rest. He does those breaks either by the rope or by using motion.
Beterbiev won’t let Canelo take a break, and he’ll be physically active the entire time, knowing he can’t avoid those types of shots. Thanks to his upper body movement, Canelo is second to none in dodging punches to the head, but he is very average in dodging body shots.
In Canelo’s two matches against Golovkin, he would look to the referee for help, but the Kazakhs would beat him so hard that it looked like he had been hit in the back.
Golovkin was even cautioned by the referee at one point for a tackle that was clearly within the bounds of the law. Then Golovkin stopped throwing at the body.
If Canelo tried the same thing with Beterbiev, looking to the umpire for help as he started getting hit, it’s unlikely it would work.
Beterbiev is not going to change his game the way stupid Golovkin did just because Canelo was trying to play the referee to stop him from taking painful pictures of his body.
The short and powerful punches that Beterbiev can throw inside will be a nightmare for Canelo as he won’t be able to avoid those blows by moving his head.
With Beterbiev at ranged range, he won’t miss Canelo, and he can quickly bring him down, especially when it comes to killing.
Browne folds almost instantly
“Even in the second round until he [Beterbiev] getting cut is a lot like Marcus Browne doing what he was supposed to do the whole game with the move, the speed, the step around, keeping the distance, keeping it easy,” continued Porter.
“After the cuts happen, Beterbiev feels urgent, and then out of nowhere, this is what I saw, Marcus Browne changed his style.
“He [Browne] started trying to sit there and take pictures instead of using his legs, using his movements the way he was, and keeping the fight outside.
“I thought Marcus Browne made the first two innings very easy,” said Porter, suggesting that Beterbiev was soon dominated.
“Then Beterbiev’s sense of urgency pushes it up, throws more punches, and is more aggressive but offensive, as opposed to just moving forward. It seems like Marcus Browne folded Porter said.
Browne folded in the fifth round as he was hit by shots from Beterbiev, and it would all be over quickly if he kept moving while delivering heavy punches to the midsection.
Beterbiev has a fixed goal
“But don’t forget that to be able to land or at least shoot in the snake’s body, a guy has to be standing still for you to do a snake shot, you know?” Porter said when told the reason Browne bent so quickly was because of body shots that Beterbiev started nailing him in the fourth round after suffering a nasty cut.
“Beterbiev, when he started using his hands, he understood that he had to, he started using his strength and punching from angles and things like that. I think it’s great,” said Porter, praising Beterbiev.
Looks like Porter didn’t watch the Beterbiev vs Browne match on ESPN+. If he watched the competition, he would know why Browne made a sudden stop in the fourth season.
He was hit with a hammer by Beterbiev, even while moving around the ring.
It was hard for the boxers to prepare for body shots while they were on the move, and that’s why Browne stopped because Beterbiev shot him with painful shots as he was walking around. ring. If Browne keeps moving the way Porter wants him to, he’ll be stopped in the fourth or fifth installment.
Browne moved very well for the first four rounds, but his mobility disappeared after Beterbiev started targeting his body in the fifth round.
To deal with the constant body blows from Beterbiev, Browne backed up with ropes in the fifth round and suffered a storm of heavy punches in the closing seconds.
The referee could have stopped the contest in that inning because Browne had taken terrible head and body penalties. Again, it looks like Porter didn’t watch the Beterbiev-Browne match because he would have known why Browne stopped moving in season five if he had watched it.
Porter = Beterbiev “The Easy Fight” for Canelo
“I think Canelo’s experience will allow him to do what he needs to do, against the back foot [against Beterbiev],” said Porter.
“I don’t think Canelo is the type of person who would point into the ring like, ‘This is me, and this is what I do, and I’m going to beat you.’
“I think now; his experience will allow him to see, ‘Oh, okay, that’s how I have to beat that guy. That’s what I’m going to do to beat that guy.“I think his experience will allow him to accept the fact that, ‘I have to put my back foot a little more. This guy is a bit older than me.
“Yes, he has a lot of power, but I can get him involved in some things, and I can beat him any time. ” I think it was a relatively easy fight [for Canelo],” said Porter.
It sounds like wishful thinking on Porter’s part in saying it will be an “easy fight” for Canelo against Beterbiev.
If it’s “easy” as Porter says, Canelo will manually pick Beterbiev in 2019 when he moves up to 175th to fight for the world title instead of 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev.
Beterbiev has TWO titles, not one like Kovalev, and he is already considered #1 in the 175-lb division.
But instead of Canelo fighting Beterbiev, he defeated Kovalev, who was stopped by Andre Ward and Eleider Alvarez.
It’s the same thing we’re about to see when Canelo ascends to cruiser rank.
Instead of fighting the best in that weight class with Mairis Briedis or Lawrence Okolie, Canelo is starting the weakest champion in Ilunga Makabu.
The short punches that Beterbiev throws inside would have been brutal for Canelo for any length of time if not for folding the store in a similar way we saw with Browne.
Beterbiev made an excellent fighter in Browne look weak, but he was soft.
Browne was one of the best boxers in the 175-lb division, but he fell short of the body shots and pressure that Beterbiev put on him.
