“Yeah [he's cherry-picking his opponents], but so what? He’s Canelo! The people love him. He's got a huge following. He’s brought tons of excitement. You can say he’s cherry-picked a little bit but he's kinda learned from the best. He got beat by Floyd and now he’s starting to make money like Floyd. "Are there greater challenges out there for Canelo Alvarez? Most definitely. Are there fights that I would truly love to see? Most definitely. Are there super talented individuals that might be able to give him problems? Definitely. But does he have to do any of those things? Absolutely not. "Whatever he wants to do, what he likes to do, what makes him want to get out of bed and excited and elevate himself and his career, that's what he's going to do. There's many different styles that he's yet to face that I believe are some of the most exciting fights in that division that could manifest. "But just because of his status and his stardom he gets to entertain the world in the way he chooses fit, and at a certain degree you just have to respect that, because it takes a lot of hard work and effort to build yourself up to get to that level. So when a fighter finally achieves that level and that status and they want to hold onto it and manipulate the industry a little bit, to me you can be mad, you can be sad, but you've got to put some respect on the game too."
I would like to know what fights Thurman thinks would be better for Canelo. He says "that division" which I assume means the division Canelo is campaigning at which is 168. What are these great fights that could stylistically challenge Canelo at 168? His biggest stylistic threats at 168 have been dealt with already in BJS and Plant. Neither are A+ champions but that's more because its a weak division than Canelo not fighting the best. I don't see Benavidez being an issue for Canelo at all. Canelo is sturdier and excels against plodders. His next biggest threats are guys like Charlo moving up from 160. Garbage division. If I were Canelo I would smack Charlo then move up to 175 and fight a lesser guy like Zurdo or Jack before challenging Beterbiev or Bivol. Preferably Bivol since Beterbiev could very well deteriorate before that fight happens. Or maybe Joe Smith jr. He seems to be getting better every fight and he doesn't need to be that great when he's physically a monster like he is.
Thurman is probably being nice. Canelo doesn't cherrypick a "little bit". It's full blown all out cherrypicking.. Of course with many fixed fights chucked in When's a high profile boxer going to call it out for how it actually is?!
Thurman shouldn't be criticizing Canelo. At least he's been active. Canelo is a future first-ballot HOFer and possible ATG. Thurman will be lucky to be a footnote in the book of boxing history.
Runtime should pipe down. While he has spent his prime years smoking a bong and doing yoga in Thailand some boxers have actually been boxing.
Floyd's career is mostly smoke and mirrors, with a few A level wins sprinkled in. He is a product of las vegas to bring in revenue. If you think he is TBE you are a bias little fanboy and possibly racist.
I do not agree. He already had f***e up hands when he further moved up in weight class and anyway he did all the best to remain PBF. Later, yeah, he was money Floyd but you might see this in Lazlo Papp and Briedis versions with f***ed up hands. Not only these BTW, these are just some shortlisted boxers.
