By James Hicken

Copyright independent

Canelo Alvarez will return to the ring this weekend in an era-defining fight for his undisputed super middleweight titles against Terence Crawford.

For over a decade, Canelo has been considered one of the most dominant and unbeatable champions of this era.

But there have been two occasions in this period of dominance that saw Canelo’s shine of invincibility worn down.

The first was against another all-time great in Floyd Mayweather , and the second was much more recent when Canelo dared to re-enter the light heavyweight ranks against Dmitry Bivol.

In preparation for this fight, there is no doubt that Crawford will have looked at both of these fights for opportunities discovered by these two men for him to exploit on fight night.

Across 67 professional fights, Canelo has only been beaten twice, but is there, hidden somewhere in those two defeats, a blueprint that we might see Crawford try to implement to pull off the biggest win of his career and snatch away the undisputed super middleweight titles on Saturday?

In 2013, a 23-year-old Alvarez took on Mayweather for the unified super welterweight championships, in what would be one of the most important fights of Canelo’s career. It proved to be a maturing fight for Canelo against a technical master.

From the first bell, it was obvious that the skill and experience gap would be something that Canelo would not be able to overcome on points. Mayweather’s defensive wizardry from his famous Philly Shell proved too watertight for even the high-volume aggression of the young Mexican to penetrate.

Whilst the fight was competitive throughout, it was something of a boxing lesson for Alvarez that he would carry with him for the rest of his career.

Although Canelo has made many changes and his style has evolved into something entirely different since this fight 12 years ago, there are still aspects that remain similar, and therefore, things that can be learned to inform a strategy that might help topple him.

Mayweather was able to muzzle the pressure and higher volume of Canelo by firing off a sharp and off-putting jab that would disrupt the rhythm of the Mexican as he tried to enter range, which would trigger Canelo into a forced counter shot that missed the target.

Then, in the times Alvarez would have him on the back foot, Mayweather would go into the Philly Shell, with his left arm tucked to cover his body, his right hand blocking any left hooks, and his right shoulder acting as the primary protector from any right hands.

Despite throwing with a higher volume, Canelo did not land more punches; this was because Mayweather’s defence and counter shots disrupted Canelo’s rhythm and allowed him to dictate the tempo of the fight entirely.

This is the key takeaway from the fight: smart defensive work, paired with lively counterpunching to break Alvarez’s rhythm, while closing the range or throwing combinations, is what frustrated Canelo and made him fight Mayweather’s fight – as well as the American’s ability to give the Mexican different looks. Sometimes he would retreat in his Philly Shell, and there were occasions where he would advance in a high guard and throw combinations of his own – never allowing Canelo to settle into an offensive rhythm.

After the Mayweather fight, it would be another nine years until Canelo lost again. He had taken on the best across four weight divisions, including two blockbuster fights with Gennady Golovkin and even a foray into the light heavyweight division to defeat Sergey Kovalev as he became the pound-for-pound best in the world.

Seemingly running out of challenges, Alvarez returned to 175lbs to regain a world title against the so far untested and relatively unknown WBA champion, Dmitry Bivol.

Despite being the smaller man and the challenger, Alvarez came into the fight as a big favourite, with people doubting Bivol’s ability to resist Canelo, saying that he did not have enough power to keep him from getting close, as we had seen against Kovalev.

But what unfolded was an unbelievable upset, engineered by Bivol, who boxed imperiously to a strict game plan that nullified all of Canelo’s strengths perfectly and allowed Bivol to take a unanimous decision.

What Bivol did was an intelligent plan on two fronts, which allowed him to take control of the fight on the front foot and the back foot.

When on the front foot, Bivol had an extremely active lead hand – constantly shooting out fast but light jabs. This did three things: it kept Canelo in his high guard, unable to shoot inside as he is at the end of the much longer range of Bivol, or if he attempted to, Bivol would catch him coming in with a jab whilst taking a step back out of his range.

It also obstructed Canelo’s already narrow view through his guard, which allowed for Bivol to sneak left hooks and right hands through to the target – and in its simplest form, it was an easy points scoring shot for the light heavyweight champion in the early rounds.

When Bivol was on his back foot or defending, rather than trying to exchange with Canelo up close, he would retreat into his own high guard and was confident enough to allow the Mexican to throw a two or three-shot combination. Then, just as Canelo looked to reset he would explode forward with a three or four-shot combination of his own, catching Canelo when he would lose focus for a split second.

With the benefit of being able to look back through the only two losses of Alvarez’s career, there is one thing that stands out among both as the common denominator that allowed both men to claim victory nine years apart.

Individual styles aside, Bivol and Mayweather never allowed Canelo to find his rhythm and get settled into the fight.

Crawford has enough ability to implement this into his own game plan. If he can use his defensive savvy and smart counter punching to offset Canelo mid-combination and escape out of harm’s way, then he will find success.

The same applies if he feels confident in his ability to take punishment from Canelo on the gloves and respond with an extra one or two shots when the undisputed super middleweight champion looks to reset, as we have seen him resort to an even lower output style in recent years.

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