Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Devastating Light Heavyweight Champion Artur Beterbiev wants to be the man to end Canelo Alvarez’s winning streak but his trainer Marc Ramsay warns that they will not play soft or push punches like most of Canelo’s opponents may have.
“That [fight with Alvarez] would be interesting on several levels,” Ramsay told Mathieu Boulay of Le Journal de Montréal newspaper. “The whole team wants a fight like that one. That would really light a fire under us, especially for what that challenge would represent.”
“We’re not going there to be extras like so many others have done,” Ramsay added. “We’re going there to defeat Canelo.”
Ramsay, interestingly, may be indirectly exposing his perception that the massive revenue generator Canelo Alvarez is a controlled franchise fraud who is protected from losing because he makes too much money for too many people, and they are in a position to essentially hire opponents like Kovalev, Saunders and Plant to play soft and lose on purpose for the career high payday.
A very interesting choice of wording from trainer Marc Ramsay indeed. Referring to Canelo opponents as “extras” in a choreographed production may have slipped under your radar but not mine.
Do you remember in the Golden Boy vs Canelo’s original manager lawsuit the determination was made that Oscar and Canelo estimated to each earn $300-400m over the next decade from Canelo’s future fights. So obviously the money is there to hire “extras”, as Ramsay put it.
We shall see if Canelo opts to fight Beterbiev, or the unimpressive, unknown African WBC cruiserweight beltholder who is lucky to earn $75,000 a fight but would probably earn over $5-10m if Canelo hires him to be an “extra.”
