Has Canelo Gone Full Donald Trump?

Has Canelo Gone Full Donald Trump?
By: John Freund

It’s the classic bully maneuver: Take your own insecurities, project them onto your opponent, then attack. For an example, we need look no further than the Master Bully himself, one Donald J. Trump.

During the Republican primary, Trump made waves by accusing Sen. John McCain of not being a war hero because he was captured in battle. Trump even went on to call McCain a ‘loser.’ This argument, aside from being outrageously insensitive, makes zero sense. Since when does a soldier lose ‘war hero’ status upon being captured? In my opinion, and I dare say in most other people’s, anyone who serves his or her country in war is a hero, regardless of whether they are captured, killed, or injured.

So why did Donald Trump say what he said?

One argument is that he’s crazy. I don’t buy it though. If Trump is crazy, then he’s crazy like a fox. Because in attacking McCain for being a ‘loser’ instead of a war hero, Trump is simply following the first lesson they teach in Bully Tactics 101: Project your insecurities onto your enemy, then attack.

Trump dodged the war. He used student deferments and later a medical deferment to avoid being drafted. And it’s painfully obvious from all his talk about ‘winning’ that the thing he fears most is losing. So Trump did what the Great Bully does, he projected his insecurities onto McCain, and went on the attack.

It’s a classic maneuver, actually. As subliminal as it is ruthless. And it’s one that gets repeated again and again.

Enter Canelo Alvarez.

Alvarez just accused Genady ‘GGG’ Golovkin of taking the easy road when facing opponents. Yup, the same Genady Golovkin that no one – including Canelo Alvarez – currently wants to fight.

“All of his opponents have been the easy road,” Alvarez told RingTV.com in a phone interview. “He has never fought someone who has really pushed him or taken him to the next level. All of his opponents have been easy opponents.”

Gee Canelo, I wonder why Triple-G’s opponents have been so easy. Could it be because YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE ARE DUCKING HIM???

This is the classic bully performance, and it couldn’t have gone better if Trump himself had given it. Canelo’s rep has taken a serious beating lately. Not only for ducking Golovkin, but also for challenging an overmatched Amir Khan and following that up with a soon-to-be-thrashing of Liam Smith. Not exactly taking the hard road, are we Canelo?

So what does the bully do in the end? He takes his own insecurities and projects them onto his enemy. Now it’s Golovkin who is ducking tough opponents. Now it’s Golovkin who is taking the ‘easy road.’

Canelo even took this tactic to its psychological extreme, not only lashing out at Golovkin for what Canelo himself is accused of, but also justifying it with some twisted form of logic that only he (and possibly Oscar De La Hoya) can dream up.

“The main difference is that Brook is going up two weight classes,” said Alvarez, of GGG’s soon-to-be next KO victim. “I only made Amir Khan go up one weight class. People say it was two, but it was only one, and this guy Brook is moving up two to fight GGG at 160.”

For those not in the know, boxers weigh-in before the fight at a certain weight limit. But with rehydration, some are able to gain serious pounds between the weigh-in and the fight itself. Amir Khan claims he weighed 161 pounds during his fight with Canelo, and stated that “Canelo must have been around 180lbs! He’s a big dude.”

Canelo, for his part, denies that he rehydrated up to 180. Whatever his actual weight, it is clear that Canelo was much bigger and stronger than Khan during their fight. So for Canelo to make the argument that GGG fighting a guy two weight classes below him is somehow different from Canelo fighting Amir Khan… well that is just absurd. Add to it the fact that Canelo is justifying his own claim that GGG is ducking strong opponents, and you have absurdity on top of absurdity.

Welcome to ‘John McCain is not a war hero.’ Welcome to the world of Donald Trump.