Chavez Jr: Canelo is going to catch Khan with an overhand shot

By Boxing News - 02/14/2016 - Comments

chavez524By Tim Fletcher: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is the bigger and stronger guy, and will wind up hurting Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) in their fight on May 7, according to former WBC 160lb champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. He thinks that Canelo is too big for Khan, who will be moving up in weight from the 147lb division to face Canelo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on HBO pay-per-view.

Chavez Jr. thinks that Canelo should have picked out a middleweight to fight rather than a fighter pooled from the welterweight division in 29-year-old Khan. Chavez Jr. does think that Khan has good hand speed and stamina. However, he’s going to be giving up so much size that it’s going to make it all but impossible for him to win the fight.

“I don’t have anything against it [Canelo-Khan], but as the middleweight champion of the world, everyone knows Amir Khan isn’t a middleweight,” Chavez Jr. said to esnewsreporting. “There’s a lot of middleweights [Canelo could fight]. Canelo is a better boxer and a bigger guy. Khan has more stamina and he’s faster, but he’s too wild. Canelo is going to catch him with an overhand,” said Chavez Jr.

This is a fight that was put together more for the sake of money than for it being a competitive one meant to entertain boxing fans. With Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions not willing to take on Gennady Golovkin just yet, they had very limited options for his May 7 fight on HBO PPV. Golden Boy were thinking of picking from fighters like Gabriel Rosado, Willie Monroe Jr, and Vanes Martirosyan for Canelo. None of those guys would have been worthy of a fight against Canelo on HBO PPV. That’s the whole problem.

Canelo had no options, period. Even if he had fought someone like Billy Joe Saunders or Liam Smith, those are fights that would have done nothing to pull in fans to purchase the fight on HBO PPV.

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The only logical thing for Golden Boy and Canelo to do was to pick someone from the welterweight division to fight. They obviously weren’t going to pick out a dangerous guy from the 154lb division or the 168lb division, because the idea is to not get Canelo beaten. Khan was perfect. He doesn’t have the size to beat Canelo, and he has a history of having chin problems.

The fight against Khan likely won’t be the last one in which Canelo is matched against a welterweight. You can bet that we could soon see Canelo fighting welterweights like Kell Brook, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman and Tim Bradley.

Those guys are less dangerous than some of the 154lb fighters like Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara and Liam Smith. Putting Canelo in with those guys would be tough on him. He beat Lara and Trout in the past, but the fights were very competitive and some fans think that Canelo lost those fights.

I don’t think its about the sport with Canelo and Golden Boy. I believe they’re picking opponents based on business reasons. It’s smart for them to select guys that bring in money without the risk. Khan is a non-risky fight for Canelo that will give him a nice payday.



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