By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KOs) weighed in at 157.8lbs at his seven-day weigh-in for his fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) this Saturday night on November 21st at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Under normal circumstances, Cotto would already be on weight for the 160lb limit for the middleweight division, but due to his choice of having the fight take place at a catch-weight of 155lbs, he still needs to drop down another 2.8lbs to make weight by this Friday for the weigh-in on November 20th. It seems silly for Cotto and Canelo to be fighting at catch-weights, because it just looks bad and somehow cheapens their fights.
What’s even worse is the World Boxing Council is allowing the fight to be for their prestigious WBC middleweight title despite the fight being at a catch-weight. You wouldn’t see catch-weights used in other sports like the NFL, NBA or pro soccer leagues.
It’s unclear how much weight Cotto had to drop to get down to his 7-day weight of 157.8. If it was a lot, then he hurt himself by choosing to use the catch-weight for the fight, because the bigger Canelo likely would have readily agreed to the fight at the full weight of 160lbs for the fight on Saturday.
Canelo would have likely agreed to the fight at 160 against a smaller fighter like Cotto, but against the almost equal-sized Gennady Golovkin, I think Canelo would have insisted on the 155lb catch-weight in order to gain an advantage over him.
Canelo did not come across well in his recent Face Off with Cotto on HBO with Max Kellerman. Canelo seemed uncomfortable with being questioned about the fight, and he looked especially uncomfortable when Cotto and his trainer Freddie Roach expressed confidence in them winning the fight. You have to wonder whether Canelo is mentally ready for a seasoned fighter like Cotto at this point.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya was saying this past week that Canelo wasn’t old enough to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. two years ago in their fight in 2013, and it could be that Canelo still won’t be old enough to beat Cotto on Saturday. If not, then at least De La Hoya will have a good excuse to explain away his loss.
I don’t know how much longer it’s going to take for Canelo to mentally mature enough for him to beat the solid fighters, but right now I don’t think he’s near ready to beat a guy as good as Cotto.
For Canelo’s sake, you have to hope that his trainer Chepo Reynoso has been working on improving his slow feet so that he can try and cut off the ring on Cotto on Saturday night. The 5’7” Cotto moves surprisingly well for a short fighter, and I think he’ll have no problems using the same kind of movement that gave Canelo fits in his loss to Mayweather Jr. and in his controversial win over Erislandy Lara just last year.
In looking at those two fights, Cotto has a lot to work with in how to beat Canelo. De La Hoya’s red rooster doesn’t handle movement well, and he can’t handle a constant hard jab to the head and straight rights. These are all things that Cotto is very good at doing, and I’m not sure how Canelo will be able to deal with them.
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