By Scott Gilfoid: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has finally found a big enough name for his franchise fighter WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) to fight on May 7 on HBO pay-per-view. As it was just announced moments ago, the 25-year-old Canelo will be facing 147lb contender Amir “King” Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) on May 7.
The fight will be at a catch-weight of 155lbs, and Canelo’s WBC middleweight title will be on the line for the fight.
This is a controversial move by De La Hoya to have Canelo fighting a welterweight in Khan, because the weight difference between the two of them is going to be HUGE. Canelo appeared to rehydrate into the 180s for his last fight against former WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, and he will likely have a big weight advantage over Khan by the time the two fighters step into the ring on May 7 on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo.
Unless Khan can get Canelo to agree to a rehydration clause, which would seem unlikely, he could EASILY be outweighed by 20 to 25 pounds by Canelo in this fight. To be sure, Canelo has pooled from the lower weight classes for opponents in the past. We saw him fight light welterweight [140lb] Josesito Lopez in 2012. Lopez moved up two divisions to fight Canelo at junior middleweight.
While Lopez did bulk up to take the fight, he just looked like a flabby 140lb fighter and was quickly knocked out in five rounds by Canelo after getting dropped three times. The Khan vs. Canelo fight is more or less the same thing as the Canelo-Lopez fight. Khan will be expected to bulk up to put on enough size to compete with the much heavier light heavyweight-sized Canelo. If Khan stubbornly chooses not to bulk up for this fight, then you can expect Canelo to basically squash him with a tremendous weight advantage of up to 25 pounds.
Delighted to announce i will be fighting @Canelo May 7th Cinco De Mayo, Las Vegas for the 155lbs @WBCBoxing title! 👊🏽 🇬🇧 🇲🇽 💥
— Amir Khan (@AmirKingKhan) February 2, 2016
If Canelo were to face someone that outweighed him by 25lbs, he would be facing the likes of IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. I don’t know about you, but I think Canelo would be massacred by Kovalev if a size mismatch like that were to ever happen, even though Canelo weighs almost as much as Kovalev.
Khan is really going to be up against it in this fight, because he’s going to be giving away so much size and power. It’s almost impossible to imagine a scenario where he can win the fight. I think it’s academic at this point that Khan will be losing. The only thing left to be decided is how he loses. Does Khan get knocked out or does he simply lose by a lopsided 12 round decision. My guess is Canelo will KO Khan in three rounds or less.
Khan might be able to string it out longer if he runs, holds and shoves Canelo all night long, but I still don’t think that will be enough to save Khan. The problem Khan has is he’s facing a light heavyweight in size in the 175-185lb Canelo. Khan rehydrates to the 150s for his fights at welterweight, and he’s not going to be able to deal with a fighter weighing in the 180s potentially like Canelo.
Breaking: @Canelo will face @AmirKingKhan on May 7 on @HBOboxing PPV. Shocker. 155 weight. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) February 2, 2016
“Canelo-Khan will be for Canelo’s middleweight title, probably will take place at the new T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. Will be 1st #boxing event,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter. “I am told Haymon had nothing to do with Canelo-Khan deal. Deal done with Khan and is father. #boxing #Canelo-Khan.”
Canelo, 25, is pretty excited about the fight with Khan, as he should be. Canelo needed a big enough name for his next fight to be on HBO pay-per-view on May 7, and the names that had been mentioned – Gabriel Rosado, Willie Monroe Jr., Liam Smith and Vanes Martirosyan – were not even remotely big enough names to interest boxing fans to want to purchase Canelo’s next fight on PPV. However, now that Canelo has Khan, a fighter that the hardcore boxing fans are familiar with in the United States, he now has an opponent that the fans will be interested in paying to see him fight.
Yeah, the fans will likely be paying to see it just for the interest of seeing Canelo decimate Khan, who is a polarizing figure. It obviously would be better if Canelo was fighting someone that was seen as having a chance at beating him, but I don’t think De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions are interested in taking any risks right now.
They supposedly will be looking to make a bigger fight against #1 WBC mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin in September of this year in what will be a huge fight on HBO PPV. I’m not sure if that fight is going to be made, but it’s understandable that Golden Boy would be looking to take it easy with Canelo until then. Khan is a safe fight for Canelo, and definitely a winnable one without the risk that would be involved if they put Canelo in with a talented fighter like Daniel Jacobs, Peter Quillin, the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara or Demetrius Andrade.
“As the middleweight champion of the world, I will take on the best fighters in the sport and on Cinco De Mayo weekend, I look forward to making the first defense of my titles,” said Canelo Alvarez. “Amir was a decorated amateur, a two-time world champion and is in the prime of his career. Fans are in for a great fight on May 7.”
For Khan, this is a bit of a surprise that he’s taking this fight against Canelo, because he had the option of either facing WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia or IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook for his next fight. Khan’s father Shah Khan said this week that he was interested in having Khan fight a tune-up fight in the first two weeks of March due to him having been out of the ring since May of 2015. They were looking at potentially matching Khan up with Andre Berto, Brandon Rios or Jo Jo Dan. It would have made sense for Khan to have taken the tune-up because he’s got to be rusty as heck due to his long inactivity. But a fight against Canelo gives Khan a big payday while at the same time protecting him from negative feedback if he loses. It’s a win-win situation for Khan.
If he gets beaten badly by Canelo, then he has an excuse for losing by him saying he fought a guy that was two divisions above him in weight. If Khan beats Canelo, it would be a tremendous victory and it would likely lead to a big money rematch against him or possibly even a fight against Golovkin. Never the less, even if Khan loses to Canelo, if he can at least give him some problems, he can come out of the fight looking good in the eyes of the boxing public. The fighter that has all the pressure on him in this contest is Canelo, because he’s expected to win with ease due to his huge size advantage.
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