(Photo credit: Martin McNeil – HoganPhotos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is listed as being 5’9” by many boxing publications, but there have been some that have questioned the 25-year-old Canelo’s height ever since he fought the 5’8” Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 and appeared no taller than him.
Earlier today in London, England, Canelo was photographed with his opponent Amir Khan ahead of their press conference in London this Monday.
When Khan and Canelo stood eye to eye for photographs, Canelo looked to be no taller than Khan. If anything, Canelo looked a little shorter than the 5′ 8½″ Khan.
What this means is that someone may have exaggerated Canelo’s height a tad bit by rounding off to a higher number to get him to 5’9”, It could very well be that Canelo is no taller than 5’8”. It least looks that way to me. He might even be a little shorter than that at 5’7 ½”, and that is very short a middleweight. But then again, Miguel Cotto is no taller than 5’7”, and he held down the WBC middleweight title for an entire year after beating the past his best Sergio Martinez in a catch-weight fight in 2014. Canelo looks short compared to Khan in the photo. I wonder what Khan is thinking now that he’s sized Canelo up and realizes that he’s not bigger than him.
If Canelo isn’t 5’9” like some people think he is, then his fight against Khan could be a lot more competitive than many people think it’ll be. If you look at Khan’s track record, he does very well against guys that are the same height as him or shorter.
In two of Khan’s losses, he’s been beaten by taller fighters than him in the 5’11” Breidis Prescott and the 5’9” Lamont Peterson. Danny Garcia, 5’8 ½”, was the exact same height as Khan, but that was a fight that Khan was dominating until he got a little too overconfident in the 3rd round and was hurt by a big left hook from Garcia.
I think Khan may do better than some boxing fans think he’ll do because he’s not going to be facing a bigger guy in terms of height. He’ll likely be fighting someone either the same height as him or a little shorter.
Khan is listed as having a half inch reach advantage over Canelo. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a bigger reach advantage than that. Khan looks like he has longer arms than Canelo, and that’s going to help him control the fight from the outside when the two of them battle it out on May 7 on Cinco de Mayo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
If Canelo can get past Khan, he’s going to have problems against the 5’10 ½” Gennady Golovkin, because he’s going to have a potential two-inch height advantage over Canelo in that fight, and who knows how much of a reach advantage.
If you give Golovkin a reach advantage, he’ll dominate. We saw that with his fights against David Lemieux and Curtis Stevens. Both were shorter than Golovkin with shorter arms. This enabled Golovkin to use his jab to control the fight from the outside without having to worry about getting hit.
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