Former world champion Sergio Mora believes that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez faces a struggle to get back to the top of the pound-for-pound list.
Canelo endured a tough year in 2022 when he lost to Dmitry Bivol before claiming victory against Gennadiy Golovkin in a match-up that many expected him to win.
The undisputed super middleweight champion is recovering from hand surgery and will fight again on May 6, live on DAZN and DAZN PPV, when he faces John Ryder in a homecoming fight in Guadalajara.
While Ryder is a credible challenger, Mora believes that a more exacting opponent needs to be put away before he can return to the top rankings, and wondered if age is starting to catch up with him.
He told JABS on The DAZN Boxing Show: “It’s gonna be tough and the odds are against him but I’m going to go with the odds and say no. I’m gonna have to explain why. He’s been a pro since he's 15 years old, he’s had 62 fights, wear and tear on his body, you see him all the time, his knees, his elbows, his hand injury.
“That starts to pile up about the age he is now. I remember all my injuries catching up with me in my early 30s. Your body isn’t the same.
"Is he still going to be elite? Yes. Is he still going to be a pay per view star? Absolutely. But pound for pound, that belongs to [the winner] if [Terence] Crawford and [Errol] Spence ever fight, if [Naoya] Inoue and [Stephen] Fulton fight, it’s [Oleksandr] Usyk and [Tyson] Fury. It belongs to the winner of those types of fights because they’re mega fights.
“If Canelo wants to get back to No. 1, you know what he has to do. [Dmitry] Bivol, [Artur] Beterbiev, [David] Benavidez, he can knock one of those guys off then of course, El Mexicano is back in the No. 1 spot. For now, beating the John Ryder's of the world, it’s not going to do it. There’s too many people waiting behind you to claim that spot.
"The other fighters like Inoue and Fulton and Usyk, there’s a lot of talent there. Canelo, once you’re on top it’s easier to get back there. You know how to get back there. But the Benavidez fight is going to be a 50-50 to me especially if Benavidez is going to look like a monster against Plant.
"I don’t see him beating Bivol again, I don’t see him beating Beterbiev. He has a problem with these types of fighters. [Jermall] Charlo, I think that’s explosive but I think Canelo is the favourite. I would love to see that fight. But there’s too much competition. I think he’ll get back to being the No. 1 star, the main attraction. But we’re talking about pound-for-pound No. 1.
"When you’re talking about a guy like Canelo, 19 years professional, all those injuries, all those fights, all those training camps, all those sparring sessions they add up, no matter how great you are. Whether you’re Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, they all had their inevitable decline. Canelo is already hitting that, we’ve already seen a regression in talent and we’ve already seen him slow down, we’ve seen him vulnerable.
"He wasn’t looking like a monster against [Sergey] Kovalev, he wasn’t looking like a monster against Caleb Plant. It took him 11 rounds. We have seen regression. His offence is not as confident, I saw it against Golovkin. I seen him have issues breaking that barrier, but he had to be careful at light heavyweight.
"This isn’t the fighter I’m accustomed to seeing."