By Dan Ambrose: Despite Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) consistently fighting in the middleweight division since 2014 and rehydrating to the mid-170s, his promoter Oscar De La Hoya says Canelo still isn’t ready to move up to 160lbs for his fights. De La Hoya says that when the 25-year-old Canelo is ready to fight at the full weight for the middleweight division at 160, then he’ll fight guys like IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs).
It’s unclear what weight Canelo will be weighing in when he and De La Hoya do finally feel comfortable for him to fight at 160. Right now, Canelo is rehydrating to as high as 175, which makes him bigger than Golovkin, who rehydrates to 170.
The difference between the 155lb catch-weight that Canelo has been fighting at recently and the full weight for the middleweight division is only 5 pounds at 160. If Canelo isn’t tough enough to fight 5 pounds heavier for his fights at middleweight, then what does that tell you about Canelo? I can’t imagine stars from the past quibbling over 5 pounds, especially if they weighed 15 pounds over the weight limit that they’re fighting at.
“No, not yet,” De La Hoya said to fighthype about Canelo not being ready to move up to the full weight of 160lbs for the middleweight division. “He’s not a middleweight. Look, he’s a junior middleweight. That’s what he is. He’s fighting Cotto at 155. These are the conditions that Cotto put. It was perfectly fine with him. He [Canelo] can make 155 easy. So when he’s ready to fight at 160, we’ll fight the very best at 160. That’s the bottom line. We don’t know what’s going to happen in this fight [Canelo vs. Cotto]. There might be a rematch. Who knows? But will he [Canelo] fight the best? Absolutely! Will he take on Golovkin? Absolutely,” De La Hoya said.
It would look bad if Gennady Golovkin went out there with his “Mexican style” of fighting at beat Canelo and did it quite easily. I don’t know if Canelo’s career would ever recover from a real beat down at the hands of Golovkin. Canelo’s loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past wasn’t that big of a deal because Mayweather elected to box Canelo for 12 rounds.
With Golovkin, he would likely take his Mexican style of fighting and beat Canelo at his own game and give him a bad beating in the process of knocking him out. Canelo’s image would take a huge hit if he were to be battered and ruined by Golovkin. I don’t know if know if many of Canelo’s fans would ever come back.
By De La Hoya saying Canelo isn’t ready to face the top fighters in the middleweight division right now because he’s not ready to fight at the full weight of 160lbs, it makes De La Hoya look like a hypocrite, because he’s been going after Floyd Mayweather Jr. by saying he’d been dodging the top fighters during his career.
That’s what De La Hoya appears to be doing for Canelo by saying he’s not ready to fight at 160, when he weighs 15 pounds more than that.
You can make an argument that De La Hoya is attempting to keep Canelo from getting battered and beaten by keeping him in the safety of his special catch-weight of 155lbs, which Canelo has fought at in his last three fights against Alfredo Angulo, Erislandy Lara and James Kirkland. By Canelo fighting at 155lbs, he’s still fighting in the middleweight division, but he’s able to dehydrate down from the 170s to get down to 155, and then quickly rehydrate back up in weight to 170+.
De La Hoya sounds like he’s just trying to protect his golden goose by saying he’s not ready to fight at the full weight of 160bs. What’s bad is that De La Hoya has been saying recently that he wants to be a different kind of promoter by making the best fighters in boxing, and not being afraid to put together exciting match-ups. But by him saying that Canelo isn’t a full middleweight yet like Gennady Golovkin, it just sounds like De La Hoya is trying to protect him.
Canelo is heavier than Golovkin as a fighter, so it doesn’t sound believable when De La Hoya says that Canelo isn’t ready to fight at 160. With Canelo rehydrating to 175, he’s certainly big enough to fight at 160. If De La Hoya is waiting for Canelo to grow into a 180+ pound fighter, then it just seems silly. Does Canelo have to have a huge weight advantage over all of his opponents before he’ll agree to fight them?
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