Canelo and Angulo make weight

By Boxing News - 03/07/2014 - Comments

03 Canelo and Angulo IMG_1620(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: With the weight being increased at the last minute, both Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Alfredo Angulo were able to make the 155 lb weigh-in limit on Friday for their fight tomorrow night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

An emaciated Canelo came in right at the weigh-in limit at 155 lbs, and looked like he couldn’t take anymore weight off without leaving himself too weak to fight on Saturday. Angulo looked a lot better at 154.5 lbs, and appeared like he would have taken more weight off without it draining him.

While they didn’t come right out and say that the weight was changed to accommodate Canelo, I think that’s probably what the situation was here. This was similar to how the weight was increased at the last second for another hugely popular Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. recently when he was unable to make weight for his first fight against Brian Vera last year in September. When Chavez Jr. couldn’t make 168, the weight was increased to 173 lbs.

Canelo is one of those guys that tends to rehydrate a lot for his fights at junior middleweight. For example, Canelo rehydrated to 172 lbs. for his fight against Austin Trout last year in April. Canelo looked like a short light heavyweight in that fight, and it was pretty shocking that he’d put on so much weight after looking painfully thin at the weigh-in, much like he looked today.

Canelo said after the weigh-in “It’s going to be a war. In my last fight [against Floyd Mayweather Jr.], I didn’t have a good dance partner. This time I want to put in a good fight.”

Looks like Canelo is still blaming Mayweather for his own failings and lack of talent in their fight last September. Instead of accepting responsibility for having fought a stupid fight by failing to put pressure on Mayweather and work with his strengths, Canelo blames Mayweather for not standing in front of him for 12 rounds and going toe-to-toe. Mayweather did stand in the pocket for much of the fight, but you can’t blame him for not wanting to do that the entire fight, because after all Canelo out-weighed him by 15 lbs on fight night. Could you imagine Canelo walking into the ring at 172 and taking on the Sergey Kovalev weighing in the low 190s? That’s what we’re talking about here.

Angulo said “I’m happy to go toe-to-toe.”

When Angulo says he’d be happy to fight Canelo in a toe-to-toe battle, you get the sense that he’s telling the truth about it because he looks ready for war. Angulo needs this fight because a loss here could knock him out of the top 15, and/or make it difficult for him to get big fights in the future. At this age, Angulo can’t afford to be cast out and ignored by the top fighters in the junior middleweight division.

Here are the weights for the major fights on the card:

Saul Alvarez 155 – Alfredo Angulo 154.5
Leo Santa Cruz 122 – Cristian Mijares 122
Jorge Linares 134.5 – Nihito Arakawa 134.5
Sergio Thompson 135 – Ricardo Alvarez 135



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