Canelo Alvarez vs Jermell Charlo: Is the Mexican superstar actually in

For much of his career, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has been not only the biggest star in boxing, but among the sport’s pound-for-pound best pure talents. Over his most recent fights, many fans and media members have noted that it appears Alvarez’s skills have begun to slip as he prepares for another undisputed title defense against Jermell Charlo.

That Alvarez might no longer be operating at his previous levels is not shocking. The Mexican superstar is 63 fights into his professional career and has traveled up and down in weight throughout his career while being one of the sport’s most active champions. There are a lot of miles on Alvarez’s 33-year-old body and these things catch up to every fighter eventually.

It would be easy to identify Alvarez’s May 2022 loss to Dmitry Bivol as the moment any decline began. However, there were some signs around Alvarez’s bouts with Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant that Alvarez was a bit slower and a bit more susceptible to being hit by shots that he’d have avoided in his younger years.

Alvarez was still ultimately able to beat both men, shattering Saunders’ eye socket for the TKO in Round 8 of their bout and dropping Plant twice in Round 11 before the stoppage. Still, both of those fights saw at least one official scorecard with Alvarez holding on to a very small lead at the time of the stoppage (77-75 vs. Saunders, 96-94 vs. Plant).

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Against Saunders and Plant, Alvarez’s power was the deciding factor as just the slightest bit of a loss of speed allowed a pair of defensive-minded fighters to take rounds and enjoy moments of success. Against Bivol, that was not the case.

Going up to light heavyweight for a second time, Alvarez loaded…