Reynoso denies Canelo is creating a new division at 155lbs

By Boxing News - 11/26/2015 - Comments

canelo5666By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso says that they’re not looking to create a new weight division by staking out 155 pounds for their fights nowadays, but he says that Canelo will continue to fight at 155 because that’s a weight that he’s comfortable at.

Reynoso says that it’s a weight that is good for the 25-year-old Canelo, and that if anyone wants to fight him, they’ll need to agree to fight at 155. It’s unclear whether the World Boxing Council will agree to let Canelo force his challengers to his WBC title fight at the 155lb catch-weight.

If so, then then the WBC will need to meet and create a new rule that allows Canelo to force his challengers to fight at any weight he wants them to between 155 and 160.

If Canelo is going to be allowed to force his challengers to fight him at catch-weights, it’s going to have a potentially huge change in boxing. If champions are allowed to force their challengers to fight them at a particular weight, it’s going to make it easier for the champions to hold onto their belts longer than they otherwise would. If a champion is particularly good at draining down to the minimum level of a weight division the way Canelo is at boiling down to 155, it will give them a potential advantage over their challengers.

“From now we are not going to move from 155-pounds,” Reynoso said to ESPN Deportes. “We are quite comfortable at this weight and it suits us. We are not inventing a new division; it’s just part of business and everyone looks for what suits them, and whoever wants to fight with Saul will have to come down or go up.”

If the WBC allows Canelo to force his mandatory challengers like Golovkin to fight at 155, then Canelo will pretty much be creating a new weight division at 155. Canelo – or any other champion that holds a WBC title – would be able to create whatever weight that they want their challengers to fight at, as long as it fits into the parameters of whatever weight division they fight at.

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It is obviously a business move on Canelo’s part to get his opponents to fight him at 155 rather than the full weight for the middleweight division at 160. It works well for Canelo because he’s got a special ability to rehydrate well into the 170s and perhaps even higher. It also helps Canelo when he fights fighters from the junior middleweight and welterweight divisions, because Canelo has the ability to rehydrate higher than they can.

“We haven’t spoken with Golden Boy but we are ready to fight. Canelo faced Cotto, who is great fighter. That was a good step and I don’t see why we cannot face GGG,” Reynoso said.

Team Golovkin has been vocal about not being interested in fighting Canelo at a catch-weight of 155. They want the fight to take place at the full weight of 160, because Golovkin hasn’t ever fought anyone at a catch-weight below 160 before. However, it looks like Canelo has no interest in fighting Golovkin at 160 judging by what his trainer Reynoso is saying.

This means that Canelo could be stripped of his WBC title if he doesn’t budge from his desire to fight Golovkin at 155, or if the WBC doesn’t create a new rule that allows champions like Canelo to force even their mandatory challengers to fight at whatever weight you want them to fight at if it meets the division weight requirements.

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Needless to say, it’s going to make both Canelo and the WBC look bad if they’re able to force Golovkin to fight at 155 instead of at the full weight. It would make a huge change to the world of boxing if champions are able to force not only their voluptuary challengers but also their mandatory challengers to fight them at the catch-weight that they want to fight them at.

The major question is why does Canelo need a catch-weight at all to fight Golovkin or anybody in the middleweight division? In looking at how huge Canelo was last Saturday night in his fight against Miguel Cotto, you would think that Canelo would be fine with fighting at the full weight for the middleweight division. Canelo looked like a light heavyweight in the ring with Cotto in that fight. Canelo wasn’t weighed by HBO before the fight, but he looked every bit as big as he was in the past when he’s rehydrated into the 170s for his fights.



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