By Dan Ambrose: If Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) decides he wants to fight WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) then he can forget all about having the fight take place at welterweight for his 147 lb. WBC title, and he can also forget about the fight taking place at a catchweight of 150 lbs. to meet halfway, because Canelo can’t go before 154, says his promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions.
I would normally be highly suspicious at hearing a promoter say something like this, but given that Canelo rehydrated up to 172 pounds for his last fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout last month, I totally believe Schaefer that Canelo simply can’t get below 154. He’s barely making weight at 154 before rehydrating up nearly 20 pounds to light heavyweight.
Schaefer said to Sportsillustrated.cnn.com that Canelo “cannot go lower than 154.”
The last time Canelo tried to go below 154 was in his fight against welterweight Matthew Hatton when the two fighters fought for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title two years ago in March 2011.
Don’t ask me why a welterweight was selected to face Canelo for the vacant title instead of one of the high ranking junior middleweights that the WBC had ranked at 154, but the World Boxing Council allowed Hatton to fight Canelo for the vacant title anyway despite Hatton not being ranked at junior middleweight.
The two fighters had an agreed upon catchweight limit of 150 pounds, which Hatton easily made without any problems. But Canelo came in over the limit at 151.8 pounds. Instead of the fight being called off, it took place anyway with Canelo still without the limit of the junior middleweight division but above the catchweight.
That fight was two years ago, and now that Canelo is approach 23, he’s filled out and is more of super middleweight/light heavyweight fighting at junior middleweight. There’s no way Canelo is going to be able to get down to 150 or 147 to fight Mayweather.
If Mayweather wants to fight Canelo then he’s going to have to fight him at junior middleweight, despite Canelo not being as popular as him. Mayweather will also likely have to deal with Canelo rehydrating up in weight way beyond what Mayweather has ever faced before.
Mayweather has never fought a 172 pound fighter in the ring before, and if they’re not going to have a rehydration clause then there won’t be anything stopping Canelo from gaining as much weight as he wants to after making the 154 pound limit.
I think Mayweather should forget all about fighting Canelo because he’s just way too heavy and it’s unlikely that he’ll agree to the catchweight or rehydration limit, and he definitely won’t come down to 147 to fight.
If he can’t even make 150, the he sure isn’t going to make 147.
Mayweather should focus on fighting guys from his division at 147 and let Canelo fight whoever Golden Boy drags up from 147 for him to fight in the junior middleweight division. I wonder how long Golden Boy will choose to match Canelo against fighters from the weight classes below him.
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