By Dan Ambrose: If you thought the 157 pound catch-weight was bad for WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto’s last fight against a weight drained Daniel Geale (31-4, 16 KOs) last Saturday night, you might find it interesting that Cotto (40-4, 32 KOs) is saying that he’ll defend his WBC middleweight title against challenger Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 32 KOs) at the bare minimum weight of 155 pounds for the middleweight division when the two of them face each other in the fall, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
That might not be a big deal for some fans because they realize that Canelo has fought his last three fights at a middleweight catch-weight of 155 pounds. However, those were non-title fights against junior middleweights that Canelo dragged up to the middleweight division for him to fight.
With Cotto defending the WBC middleweight title, it looks very strange that he’s continually defending it at catch-weights instead of the full weight for the division.
“Cotto said he and Canelo can fight at 155, weight Canelo has been for last 3 fights. #Cotto-Geale #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.
That’s another catch-weight for Cotto. The catch-weight against Geale likely did a number on the Australian fighter because he rehydrate all the way to 182 pounds. That’s 20 pounds of water-weight that Geale put on overnight in just 24 hours after he weighed in at 157 pounds on Friday during the weigh-in.
That would help explain why Geale didn’t have the normal bounce in his step, speed or the mobility that he’d shown in previous fights. Geale just looked slow and heavy on his feet for the fight. Whoever came up with the idea to drain Geale down to 157 in Cotto’s team just be commended because they did a good job of weakening Geale enough to where he was no problem for Cotto to beat.
Now where it might start looking really bad is if Cotto tries to push Gennady Golovkin to fight at a low catch-weight of 155 pounds when it comes time for him to get a title shot. I don’t know that Cotto can actually do that with his Golovkin because he’s the WBC mandatory challenger.
About the only thing that Cotto can do is threaten Golovkin by saying unless he agrees to the 155 pound catch-weight, he’ll vacate the title and leave him with the option of having to fight for the vacant WBC title against the likes of #1 WBC Jorge Sebastian Heiland. That’s a not a dangerous fight. It’s a fight that would bring little money for Golovkin compared to the cash he’d get in a fight against Cotto.
If Canelo wins the fight, it’s debatable whether he’ll bother defending it, because if he does he’ll need to face Golovkin. Would be tragic is if Canelo chooses to bypass Golovkin in the same way that Cotto will be doing in the fall. One can only hope that Canelo would be open to defending the WBC title against Golovkin rather than steering around him or vacating the title immediately.
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