Can Rocky Fielding pull off a real-life 'Rocky' upset vs. Canelo Alvarez? There's a chance
It’s not just in the movies that Rocky has a chance.
Oh, Rocky Fielding probably doesn’t have a great chance to defeat Saul “Canelo” Alvarez when they meet on Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York for Fielding’s WBA super middleweight title belt, but he has a chance.
Boxing history has taught us that. The beauty of the sport is that when you put two gloves on a guy, all it takes is one shot, one punch in the right place, to change boxing history.
Some upsets are huge at the time, but not so much when looking back with the benefit of history. When Cassius Clay knocked out Sonny Liston in 1964 to win the heavyweight title, boxing experts were shocked, as Liston had seemed invincible and Clay was perceived as erratic and in over his head.
Liston, of course, never won another significant fight. Clay become Muhammad Ali and authored one of the great careers not only in boxing history but in sports history.
The two biggest upsets to me were Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson in 1990 and Kirkland Laing over Roberto Duran in 1982. Duran lost to Laing in Detroit on Sept. 4, 1982, but would go on shortly after to defeat José “Pipino” Cuevas, upset Davey Moore for the super welterweight title and nearly beat “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler for the middleweight belt.
Laing never had a significant win before beating Duran and never had one after.
A few years ago, I was interviewing promoter Don King about a fight in which an opponent was largely unknown. King was trying to sell his guy as a legitimate challenger to a popular champion. In so doing, he perfectly encapsulated Fielding’s situation heading into his title defense on Saturday against Alvarez.
King said something to the effect of, “They’re unknown until they shock the world and then they become known and then every unknown guy out there wants to fight the guy who used to be unknown so they could become known themselves.”
Fielding is a 20-1 underdog and his only hope to defeat an elite champion like Alvarez is by somehow using his height and reach to his advantage.
These kinds of fights often get ripped when they’re made, but can occasionally turn out like the movies and have that fairytale ending. Douglas was an exceptionally talented heavyweight who had never been motivated prior to meeting Tyson and wasn’t particularly motivated after that bout.
But he put it together on that one magical night that will be forever remembered as long as two people box each other for money.
Fielding is doing and saying all the right things, and seems relaxed. But it’s easy to be relaxed at a public workout or a news conference when an elite fighter like Alvarez isn’t bearing down on you with bad intentions.
“I feel great, excited and soaking it all up,” Fielding said. “This is my first time doing such a big fight week and I’m really enjoying it. People are talking a lot about the size difference, and I have to make that a factor on Saturday night because I need to use every advantage that I’ve got. It’s my weight division. I’ve been at super middleweight for a long time. I make the weight well and he’s stepping up. The bookmakers are going to lose money. I was the underdog in Germany against a young and unbeaten fighter in his fourth defense and blasted him away in five rounds to take home the title. I perform better when I’m the underdog and everyone is against me. I thrive on that.
“I have prepared myself to be at my best on the night and if I need to bite down on the gumshield and fight it out, I know I can do that. When people come to KO me, that’s when I catch them off-guard and get the KO myself. But Canelo is an experienced and clever fight who doesn’t make many mistakes, so the things that we’re working on in camp will pay off on Saturday night.”
Fielding will probably be a footnote to history when Alvarez is inducted one day into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. But if Alvarez gets careless, has looked past him or has that nasty cut on his left eyeline opened during the fight, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Fielding could win.
It’s hardly the kind of match one thinks that DAZN, which is live streaming the fight, had in mind when it signed Alvarez to a mammoth deal which it says guarantees him $365 million.
DAZN has a massive investment in Alvarez and a Fielding win would be seen by most as disastrous. But if Fielding scores the upset, all the attention DAZN receives in the media would dwarf the amount of advertising it is doing and could single-handedly boost its profile better than a 30-second commercial ever could.
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