By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) says he expects to get a title shot against WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (39-4, 32 KOs) later this year in September. If it doesn’t happen then, Canelo sees the fight happening at some point in the future. He sees the fight as inevitable.
Canelo doesn’t have much to worry about because Cotto definitely will be facing him this year after the two of them get through with their next fights. Cotto faces former IBF/WBA middleweight champion Daniel Geale (31-3, 16 KOs) on June 6th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Canelo will be fighting James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) on May 9th at Minute Maid Park, in Houston, Texas, USA.
“The fight with Miguel Cotto will come in time. It’s a nature fight,” Canelo said via ESPN Deportes. “It may be in September or later, but I’m sure that at some point it will because it is inevitable.”
Canelo said that he’s not going to stay at middleweight after facing Cotto for his WBC 160 pound title. Canelo feels that he can still make weight for the junior middleweight division despite the fact that he hasn’t fought in the weight class since his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. almost two years ago in September 2013. Like his last two fights, Canelo’s fight against Kirkland will also be taking place at middleweight at a catch-weight of 155 pounds.
“I’m fine at 154. I have no problems with the weight,” Canelo said. I feel comfortable and strong. I believe that I can stay at a couple more years at 154.”
Given that Canelo hasn’t fought at junior middleweight in a couple of years, it would seem that he’s a tad bit in denial about him still fighting at junior middleweight. You can’t say that you’re still fighting at junior middleweight when your last two fights were at middleweight and your next two fights are going to be at middleweight as well. If walks like a duck, and talks like a duck. It’s a duck. I think Canelo is in denial about him being a middleweight. Once he fights Kirkland and Cotto at middleweight, he’ll have fought his last four fights in the middleweight division. I don’t know what to call a fighter who fights the majority of his fights at middleweight other than to call him a middleweight.
I think Canelo wants to stay at junior middleweight because it puts him within striking distance of big money fights against Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Once he moves up to middleweight, he may find it more difficult to get the big stars at 147 to fight him because he’ll then be technically two divisions above them, but that’s what he really is though. Canelo is basically a middleweight just like Gennady Golovkin. Canelo rehydrates to the mid-170s just like Golovkin does. The only difference is that Canelo is fighting junior middleweights and welterweights, and Golovkin is fighting middleweights.
If Canelo defeats Cotto to capture his WBC middleweight title, it’s expected that Canelo will immediately vacate the title rather than keep it. If Canelo were to keep the title, he’d be expected to face WBC interim middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, and that might not go too well for Canelo. Golovkin is a big puncher and he would love it to mix it up with him in the trenches.
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