By Dan Ambrose: A lot of boxing fans feel that Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is making a grave error in stepping up a couple of weight classes to challenge WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) at a catch-weight of 155lbs on May 7. Former world champion Paulie Malignaggi is one of many who thinks this is a bad idea for Khan.
Malignaggi says that Khan and Canelo are both disrespecting the weight classes with this fight. Malignaggi is one of the old school fighters who believes that you should stay in your weight class, and fights guys that don’t outweigh you or who are much lighter than you.
Canelo is technically giving Khan a break by fighting him at a catch-weight of 155lbs instead of at the full weight of 160 pounds for the middleweight division. However, it’s really not an advantage that Canelo is giving Khan, because he’s quite good at melting down from the 170s to fight at 155.
Canelo can drain down huge amounts of weight without it hurting his body. There’s not too many fighters that can do that, but Canelo is one of them and maybe of the best in the sport with his draining and rehydration ability.
“I’m not sure that a fight with Canelo Alvarez is a smart choice,” said Malignaggi to Beyond Boxing News. “It’s going to make some money, but I think they make weight classes for a reason. When you disrespect weight classes too much, you pay the price. I don’t see that as a good fight for him [Khan]. It’s a big fight with two big names where everyone knows their names. Everyone knows Canelo Alvarez. You can sell that fight. Unless you really know boxing, you don’t realize these guys are in different weight classes. You’ve got highlight reels promoting the fight for both guys with two weight classes apart. That’s not the fight you’re going to see,” said Malignaggi.
I think Khan had no choice but to take the Canelo fight. Khan’s career had pretty much reached a serious stall point since his loss to Danny Garcia in 2012, and the options for Khan at 147 are pretty limited. He’s got a fight against Kell Brook, the IBF champion, and that’s pretty much it. Khan wouldn’t make much money fighting the likes of Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman. He obviously isn’t going to fight Tim Bradley or Manny Pacquiao.
I think Khan would fight both if he could, but it doesn’t look like their promoter Bob Arum is interested in matching them against Khan. Without the option of fighting Bradley or Pacquiao, Khan only had the Brook fight as a money maker. That’s why it was smart for Khan to accept the Canelo fight, because no matter what happens, the Brook fight would still be there for him to make big money. That’s a great fight for when Khan needs it.
You can think of the Brook fight as social security for Khan. It’ll be there when he needs it, as long as he doesn’t retire before taking the fight. I can’t see Khan doing that. I see him going for the Brook after the Canelo clash if he loses that fight.
If Khan beats Canelo, then Brook will probably need to wait for a little while longer until Khan exhausts his other fights. Canelo has a rematch clause in the contract with Khan, so that’s something that Khan would need to get out of the way first. There’s also the possibility for Khan to fight Gennady Golovkin in what would be a huge money fight. Right now, Khan isn’t sure whether he would take the fight with Golovkin. But if he beats Canelo in two fights, then I think Khan would feel confident enough to face Golovkin in a PPV fight on HBO.
Canelo vs. Khan is a great fight, and it’s a no lose match-up for Khan. Even if he gets beaten, he won’t take much flack because no one is expecting much from him because he’s moving up in weight against a fighter that could come into the ring in the 180s or even 190s. If Khan wins, he’s going to make a huge amount of money and will gain a ton of respect in the boxing community. That’s a win-win situation for Khan. You can’t deny that Khan would be on top of the world if he beats Canelo on May 7 in their fight on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. If Malignaggi had done the same thing with his career, he would be well-respected. Unfortunately, the only thing Malignaggi did was move up from 140 to 147 to beat what many boxing fans saw as a paper champion in former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko in April 2012. Malignaggi stopped Senchenko in the 9th round.
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