Canelo confident he’ll be facing Cotto next May in catch-weight fight at 155

By Boxing News - 12/04/2014 - Comments

canelo44By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC 154 pound champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez says he believes he’ll have a deal made with WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in the next couple of weeks for a catch-weight fight at 155 pounds for Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend next year in May.

Canelo (44-1-1, 31 KOs) says he wants to stay at junior middleweight even though he’s fighting for Cotto’s WBC middleweight belt. With Canelo struggling badly to stay at 154, you have to wonder why he’s persisting at staying at the weight. The obvious answer is the big fights that the 24-year-old Canelo can get against the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny Pacquiao.

In addition to that, Canelo has a big weight advantage over his opponents in fighting at junior middleweight, especially when he rehydrates to over 170 pounds. If Canelo moves up to middleweight then that weight advantage disappears overnight.

Canelo would then be basically facing guys the same weight as him, and that would take away any advantage that he had. Further, Canelo would likely be pressured to fight Gennady Golovkin, the WBA champion, and that’s a fight where Canelo could get taken apart. It’s one thing for Canelo to get out-boxed by Mayweather and Erislandy Lara, but a whole different thing for him to get knocked out by Golovkin.

Canelo would probably lose a huge number of fans if he were to face Golovkin and get knocked out. That’s why it’s better for Canelo to stay at junior middleweight so that he can fight smaller guys that he would frequently had a weight advantage over. If Canelo fights Golovkin, we’re talking two fighters that weigh close to the same.

“They’re moving along well,” Canelo said via ESPN Deportes. “Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll have a deal. I’d like to have a deal in place before the year ends. We’re fighting for his title, but the fight would take place at 155 pounds. But I still want to stay at super welterweight.”

I guess this means that we’re not going to be seeing a Canelo-Golovkin fight in the near future. If Canelo beats Cotto, then you can expect Canelo to vacate the title rather than take on a dangerous guy like Golovkin would potentially wreck any chances of a Canelo rematch with Mayweather or a fight between Canelo and Pacquiao.



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