By Chris Williams: A talked about fight between WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for 2015 could be little more than a pipe dream for a lot of people, because it’s probably not going to happen, says ESPN’s Dan Rafael. He doesn’t believe it’s going to take place due to Canelo moving up in weight to middleweight and Pacquiao moving down in weight to 140.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach and personal adviser Michael Koncz have already said that for the fight to happen, Canelo would have to agree to a catch-weight. In other words, he would have to come into the fight below 154, and likely well below 154. My guess is the only Canelo gets a Pacquiao fight is if he agrees to a catch-weight handicap of 150lbs, and that’s not going to happen in this lifetime. If Canelo were to get down to 150 for a weigh-in, he’d be totally weight drained and far too weak to be able to put up a decent fight.
“After Pacquiao’s tough fight a few years ago with junior middleweight Antonio Margarito, Pacquiao and trainer Freddie Roach said he would never fight that big of an opponent again,” Rafael said to ESPN. “Even if they wanted to make that fight, it is unclear whether HBO has the rights to Pacquiao (I believe it does) and whether Showtime has the rights to Alvarez.”
So there it is. We won’t be seeing a Pacquiao-Canelo fight anytime soon, if ever. The catch-weight that Canelo would have to agree on for him to get a fight against Pacquiao is one that is likely physically impossible to make. Even if he did make it somehow, he’d be a zombie for the fight and would likely be so weak that Pacquiao could win the fight just by walking out to the center of the ring and blowing on the weight-drained shell of Canelo. Besides the weight issue, you still have Pacquiao under contract to fight on HBO, and Canelo with Showtime. That’s a showstopper for sure for a potential Pacquiao-Canelo fight.
If the two fighters could agree on a fair catch-weight of 152 or 153, I still have a feeling we might see a re-hydration clause in the contract that would prevent Canelo from rehydrating above a certain weight. In his last fight, Canelo rehydrated to 175 to fight Alfredo Angulo last March. There would be no point in asking for a catch-weight handicap without a re-hydration clause as well, and I have a feeling we’d see that too.
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