Canelo’s trainer: If GGG wants fight, it’ll be at 155lbs

By Boxing News - 11/21/2015 - Comments

canelo974(Photo credit: Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Roc Nation Sports/Golden Boy Promotions) By Tim Fletcher: Tonight will be Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s fourth consecutive fight at 155lbs when he steps inside the ring to fight Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) in their fight on HBO pay-per-view.

While it was hoped that Canelo would finally fight at the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division if he gets past Cotto, it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen. Fans want Canelo to fight IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) next in a middleweight clash.

That fight could happen, but it’ll require that Golovkin melts down to a catch-weight of 155lbs, says Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso. He says that Canelo still isn’t a middleweight yet, and they’re going to keep fighting at his special weight of 155lbs.

Reynoso says that they’re open to a fight against Golovkin, but only if he’s willing to fight them at 155lbs. Golovkin has already said no to the idea of fighting Canelo at 155. Unless Golovkin changes his mind, it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a fight between the two superstars.

“I can tell you one thing, Saul dodges no one,” Canelo’s trainer Reynoso said to Fightnews.com. “He’s a fighter and he wants to fight the best and Golovkin is one of the best. We are ready to fight anyone, but our fights will be at 155 pounds. Canelo is not ready to be a full-fledged middleweight so if GGG or anyone else wants to fight at 155 pounds we are more than happy to fight them.”

There’s an argument that can be made that Canelo doesn’t need a catch-weight of 155lbs for a fight against Golovkin when he’s heavier than the Kazakhstan fighter. With Canelo being the heavier fighter than Golovkin, it would seem that the only reason for a catch-weight of 155lbs would be in order to weaken him.

That’s what it appears is behind a catch-weight for a fight against Golovkin. If Canelo doesn’t believe he’s up to a fight against Golovkin, then it’s best that the fight not take place until he does feel he’s capable of competing with him. When the time comes that Canelo no longer feels he needs a catch-weight handicap to fight Golovkin, then we should be able to see the fight take place.

If Canelo waits long enough before fighting Golovkin, he’ll have an age handicap, because Golovkin will age to the point where he’s more beatable than he is now. At 33, Golovkin may soon start showing signs of aging and losing his skills in two or more years.

That might be Canelo’s best chance of beating Golovkin rather than attempting to use a weight handicap of a 155lb catch-weight to weaken the Kazakhstan fighter so that he can beat him.

“I want to make it clear that we are not looking past Cotto,” Reynoso said. “He’s an excellent fighter, he’s a puncher and Canelo is a puncher so is going to make for a great fight.”

Canelo and Reynoso definitely can’t look past Cotto. Canelo didn’t look that great in his fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr., Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara and James Kirkland. There were flaws in Canelo’s game in each of those fights that Cotto could potentially take advantage of.



Comments are closed.