Canelo says Pacquiao would have to move to 154 for them to fight

By Boxing News - 05/11/2015 - Comments

Image: Canelo says Pacquiao would have to move to 154 for them to fight(Photo Credit:Ed Mulholland/Golden Boy/Golden Boy via Getty Images) By Dan Ambrose: Besides not being interested in giving Floyd Mayweather Jr. any advantages in a rematch as far as a catch-weight goes, former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) says there would be no advantages given to the tiny 5’6” Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) if he were to face him in the near future.

If Pacquiao wants the fight with Canelo, he’ll have to agree to fight him at 154, or possibly even 155, since that’s the weight that Canelo has fought at in his last three fights. That’s middleweight whether Canelo knows that or not.

“I’m ready to fight anybody,” Canelo said at the Kirkland post-fight press conference last Saturday. “He’s [Pacquiao] not ready to move up to my weight class [155?]. I respect that. He shouldn’t be given any advantages,” Canelo said.

It’s a bit much asking a small 140+ pound fighter to come up to 154 or 155 in order to fight him. Canelo would have a huge weight advantage over Pacquiao if the two of them fought at 155, because Canelo would likely rehydrate to the mid-170s. If Canelo walks into the ring at 175lbs on fight night against a 145 pound Pacquiao, Canelo would have a 30 pound weight advantage. That’s an insane amount of weight.

Even if Pacquiao bulked up to 150 like he did against Mayweather in their fight on May 2nd, we’re still talking about Canelo having a potential 25 pound weight advantage over Pacquiao. That would be like Canelo fighting a cruiserweight. There’s no way Canelo could hang with a cruiserweight. Throw Canelo in with Marco Huck, Rakhim Chakhkiev or Denis Lebdev, and I think it would be a disaster for Canelo. But it is interesting that Canelo isn’t willing to give a tiny catch-weight to a guy that he’d enjoy a tremendous weight advantage over in Pacquiao.

I don’t think the24-year-old Canelo realizes that he’s not at the same level that Pacquiao and Mayweather are in terms of being a marketable fighter right now. He needs fights against both of those guys so that he can increase his market brand and become a huge PPV attraction in the future.

If Pacquiao is willing to fight you at a catch-weight, then you’ve to take that fight because it will help you become a much bigger PPV star in the future. Fighting Pacquiao and Mayweather can potentially give the Midas touch to the red-haired Canelo’s career because it would help make him more popular. That means his PPV fights would earn him a lot more money than they’ve been making him.

If Canelo is going to say no to draining down to 150 or 152 to fight a much smaller guy than himself, then he’s the one that will ultimately be hurt by it. He needs the fights against Mayweather and Pacquiao to become a huge PPV attraction instead of a smaller one like he is now. Someone needs to sit Canelo down and explain all this to him because he doesn’t seem to be grasping the positives from facing Mayweather and Pacquiao. Canelo should be happy that he can potentially get fights against them, and not saying what he will or won’t do. If they’re willing to fight Canelo at a catch-weight, then he should take it. Canelo is already going to have at least a 15 to 30 pound weight advantage against both of those guys.



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