Greg Hackett did not dress it up for Mill City. Christian Mbilli was supposed to lose to Canelo Alvarez. Canelo knows too much, he is too talented, too skillful, too much of a dog — Mbilli sits at a good level, but Canelo sits at a super level, and you have to be super to beat him. Mbilli knew it before the first bell: he came in nervous, he did not look like himself, he tried to be patient and box, and it simply was not there. Canelo, in Hackett’s words, was just sparring — having a good time, making some money. And Hackett holds no grudge against Mbilli for taking it. Get your chips. If you are going to take a loss, taking one to one of the best in the world, by the numbers and the accomplishments, is the way to do it.
The part that will follow Mbilli is what he did with his chance. Hackett’s advice for him now is brutal in its simplicity: be yourself, do not try anything new — crash out. That is what Mbilli does, and against a man like Canelo it was his only real shot. Instead he reached into a bag of tools he does not own, and now the whole sport knows Mbilli can be opened up. Before this fight, all anybody knew was that he would give you a hell of a fight and go all out, the way he did against Lester Martinez. This time he looked hesitant, scared, nervous — and he had never faced defence like this, a man relaxed and composed, lining him up and making him pay for every mistake.
Then Hackett turned the knife the other way. Canelo, he says, is an old man — not by his age, by his career. He is visibly slowing down, picking and choosing instead of letting his hands go, and if Hackett were in his seat, he would retire, because one day a man who does not respect him will fight him hard and it might end bad. Right now Canelo is winning off his ghost: opponents are scared of his past work, not his current work. He buckled Mbilli, shook his knees, and never went after him — not lost killer instinct, just dulled down, an old man who beats you with his mind now. Skills pay the bills, the same lesson Terence Crawford taught when everybody said weight classes exist for a reason — and Crawford, who had to be told by Bomac to chill against Canelo, would have stopped Mbilli, because Mbilli would have disrespected Bud and Bud would have let his hands go.
Our take: Hackett was roasting coaches on this channel yesterday — today he roasted two fighters at once. Mbilli fought the name instead of the man, and Lester Martinez, whom Hackett rates as more skilled and more competitive, still loses to Canelo in his book for the same reason: everybody gets in there saying wow, this is Canelo Alvarez. Names do not win rounds. Men who stand on business and crash out anyway at least leave with their identity. Mbilli left with a lesson the whole division just watched him learn.
Video credit: Mill City Boxing.
