By Dan Ambrose: While the entire boxing world was busy talking up a fight between Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last night following Canelo’s 12 round unanimous decision win over 35-year-old Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs) in Las Vegas, Nevada, Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya seemed to have other ideas, saying that there’s a lot of other big fights out there potentially for the 25-year-old Canelo other than a fight against Golovkin.
One of those fights is a rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs). De La Hoya said that they will take the fight with Mayweather in May if he chooses to come back and agrees to fight Canelo.
De La Hoya feels that the fight would be much different this time around compared to the last time they fought in 2013, because Canelo is a different fighter in De La Hoya’s mind and is just now starting to reach his “man strength.” Canelo couldn’t KO Cotto with his new found “Man strength,” which suggests that Canelo might not be any more powerful now than he was two years ago when he lost to Mayweather by a lopsided 12 round decision.
“What Canelo was able to do was dominate,” De La Hoya said to the assembled media last Saturday night following Canelo’s win over Cotto at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Cotto was out there trying to box him. Canelo showed a lot of good movement, and a lot of good combinations. He was aggressive. He was still trying to come out in the late rounds trying to get a knockout. This is just a point where Canelo is getting better, better and better. I’m here to remind people he’s just 25-years-old. It’s going to happen [Canelo vs. Golovkin]. Don’t worry. I can take a page out of my mentor’s book Bob Arum; ‘Well, you got to let it marinate,’ or I can say ‘Let’s do it.’ Let me talk to my team. Let me talk to Canelo. Let me discuss how he’s feeling. We don’t know. We’ll have to see. Is he going to fight Golovkin? Absolutely. Fighters fight for belts. That’s why it was so important for Canelo to fight for the WBC belt,” De La Hoya said.
I don’t believe that Canelo looked like a better fighter than he was two to three years ago when he was beating guys like Austin Trout and Josesito Lopez. What I see is Canelo is bigger now than he ever was before, and that extra weight means he can absorb shots without being hurt by them. Canelo looked like a light heavyweight last night in the Sergey Kovalev size mold.
Canelo looked really heavy to the point where he looked bigger than the super middleweights. I don’t know how much weight Canelo gained back after rehydrating for his 155lb catch-weight fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 30 pounds or more. That would put Canelo at 185lbs last night. What’s interesting is that Canelo didn’t weigh-in last night before his fight against Cotto. Why wouldn’t Canelo do this?
As big as Canelo was last night, I have a feeling he chose not to do it because when the boxing fans discovered how heavy he was, it would undercut his argument that he can only fight Golovkin at a catch-weight of 155lbs because he feels he’s not a true middleweight yet. If a 180+ Canelo is outweighing the 170lb Golovkin by 10-15 pounds after rehydrating, then that takes away any argument that Canelo might have about him needing the 155lb catch-weight handicap for a fight against Golovkin.
I think Canelo has a gift for being able to take off tremendous amounts of weight in a short period of time to make weight in his own special weight class of 155, and then put it back on in a short period of time without it putting him in the hospital. Taking off 25 to 30 pounds of water weight the week before a fight is potentially dangerous. Golovkin obviously doesn’t want any part of having to drain down in weight the way Canelo does.
When De La Hoya was asked if Canelo is ready to fight a rematch against Mayweather, De La Hoya said “Absolutely! It’s a whole different Canelo. Every fight we’re seeing a different Canelo. That’s the issue. He just turned 25 and he’s still growing. He’s still maturing. He’s still getting into his man strength. He’s a fighter we haven’t seen the best of yet. Obviously, Mayweather is retired. If Mayweather decides to come back, Canelo Alvarez already has May reserved and he would definitely like to explore the option. No, I’m not going to initiate anything [with Mayweather]. Like I said, Mayweather is retired. But if he does want to come back and fight Canelo and make a lot of money once again, this would be the fight with Canelo. We’re not saying Triple G is not the question. We’re not saying it at all. We’re just saying that Canelo had a great fight, and we have to sit down and discuss it. I didn’t score it. He won the fight clearly. The wide margin is a little questionable, but he won hands down,” De La Hoya said.
I don’t know that Mayweather is going to want to make a comeback to fight Canelo, because he can make a lot more money fighting Manny Pacquiao a second time. Besides that. The weight difference between Canelo and Mayweather would likely be too much for Mayweather to want to take that fight. Unless Canelo wants to agree to another catch-weight, I don’t see Mayweather agreeing to fight him a second time.
If Mayweather comes into the fight weighing 150lbs and Canelo comes in at 180 to 185lbs like he looked last night, I don’t think Mayweather is going to like the idea of being out-weighed by 30 to 35 pounds by Canelo. As big as Canelo is, he should be fighting light heavyweight champions Sergey Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson, or facing light heavyweight contenders Jean Pascal and Artur Beterbiev.
On the question of a rematch between Canelo and Cotto, De La Hoya said “I don’t know. It depends on a lot of things. I’m curious what the numbers are going to be. I strongly feel we’re hitting the million [buys] mark. All indications and the numbers are there for me to believe that. The bottom line is we have the guy [Canelo]. We have the guy for many years to come. It’s going to be a lot of fun to put together some great fights,” De La Hoya said.
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