By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 32 KOs) says he would like to face the 36-year-old Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs). Canelo, 24, didn’t say when he would like to face the smaller 5’6” Pacquiao, but obviously it would have to be soon before Pacquiao ages out to where it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
Pacquiao has a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr on May 2nd, and you would assume that he would need to win that fight to make it interesting for a fight between him and Canelo to be set up.
By the same token, Canelo will need to win his next fight against James Kirkland on May 9th for a fight between him and Pacquiao to be one that would attract interest.
“It would be an honor to fight Pacquiao with all due respect. It would be an honor to fight a legend like him,” Canelo said via esnewsreporting.com.
What Canelo doesn’t know is that for him to get a fight against Pacquiao, he would likely need to agree to melt down to 150 at the minimum, because both Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach and adviser Michael Koncz want a catch-weight to be involved before they let Pacquiao fight Canelo.
“We cannot go into the ring if there is no catch-weight. It’s too dangerous,” Koncz said via Philboxing.com about a potential Canelo-Pacquiao fight. “We are not trying to get any advantage but just trying to protect the health of Manny.”
With Canelo fighting three consecutive fights at a catch-weight of 155 pounds rather than at the limit of the junior middleweight division at 154, I’m not sure that Canelo could come down in weight to fight Pacquiao at 154.
I don’t think Roach or Koncz would be interested in a Pacquiao vs. Canelo fight at 152 or higher. I think they’d be looking at draining Canelo down to 150, which would be a very light weight for Canelo.
At that weight, I think Canelo would be too weak to fight, because he’s been rehydrating into the 170s for his fights. That would mean that Canelo would have to dehydrate more than 20 pounds to make the catch-weight of 150 pounds against Pacquiao. I honestly don’t think Canelo can do it. We’re talking about a light heavyweight sized fighter draining down to make weight in the division he’s been fighting in, and I don’t think he can do it.
Canelo should be fighting at middleweight or super middleweight at this point in his career, but thus he’s been able to drain down in weight to make the weight.
Canelo’s not even bothering to make the junior middleweight weight limit anymore. He’s been fighting at middleweight his last two fights in draining down to a catch-weight of 155, and he’ll be doing that for the Kirkland fight on May 9th. If Canelo has to drain down to 150, he might end up too sick to fight.
Of course, Canelo can always lose muscle during training camp to help him get closer to the 150 pound limit, but I don’t think that’s going to help Canelo. If he has to lose 10 pounds of muscle to get down to 165, and then dehydrate from there to get to the 150 pound catch-weight, I think he’s still going to be weight drained. That’s 15 pounds Canelo would have to lose and I don’t think he could do it after having lost 10 pounds of muscle weight.
“At the right weight, we’ll [Pacquiao] fight him,” Roach said to the Boxing Channel. “I think the biggest he [Pacquiao] can fight is 150…I know [Canelo] came down to 152 for Mayweather…He’s a much bigger guy than Manny. If we can get a catch-weight that is fair to both of them, I think it would be a good fight.”
There it is. Roach saying that the biggest weight that Pacquiao can fight is at 150, which is the same weight that Pacquiao fought Antonio Margarito at in 2010 in their fight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title.
That’s a weight that a normal junior middleweight should have no problem making, but if you’re talking about a light heavyweight sized fighter who has been draining down a ton of weight to make the 154 pound limit, then I don’t think it’s going to be possible without putting Canelo in a situation where he’ll be too weak to fight. But then again, maybe he’ll be okay with being weak and unable to fight because the money will be so good.
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