By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) says he thinks he’ll be moving up to the 160lb division after he faces WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) on September 17. Canelo has already been unofficially fighting as a middleweight for the last two years of his career with his catch-weight fights at 155lbs, but it looks like he wants to make it official after he fights Smith next month.
The move up in weight for Canelo is long overdue because as heavy as he is, he should have been fighting at the full weight of 160 pounds in the middleweight division a long time ago. Canelo says he still makes the 154lb weight class easily, but he feels he’ll be more comfortable at middleweight.
Canelo obviously must not be making the weight comfortable for him to have been fighting at middleweight the last two years. If he was making 154 comfortably, then he wouldn’t have been melting down to 155 and looking drained at the weigh-in for his catch-weight fights.
“We are thinking this is probably the last fight at 154lbs. But right now, we are only thinking of this fight,” Canelo said to FightHype.com this week “I feel comfortable and feel I make the weight good but I think I will feel much more comfortable moving up in weight class.”
It’s difficult to understand why Canelo didn’t move up to middleweight a long time ago. Even three years ago when he fought Mayweather, Canelo was said to be fighting in the 170s for his fights at junior middleweight. Now three years later, Canelo looks even bigger, and many boxing fans believe he rehydrates into the 180s for his fights. If that is the case, then it’s got to be incredibly hard on his body to lose close to 30 pounds of water weight the week of his fights and then putting it back on overnight for his fights.
Canelo will be expected to fight middleweight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin once he makes the full transition to middleweight. It’ll look strange if Canelo moves up in weight to middleweight, but then steers clear of fighting Triple G. It’s thought that Canelo will target WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders next in December to pick up a title in the 160lb weight class to give him credibility with the boxing fans.
You can argue that the unbeaten Saunders is the middleweight division’s version of Liam Smith. In other words, he appears to be a vulnerable fighter with an inflated resume of wins over weaker opposition. When Canelo does move up to middleweight, it’ll be interesting to see if he continues to fight at catch-weights like he’s done in the past two years or if he finally decides to fight at the full weight of 160lbs for the weight class.
It’ll look bad if Canelo fights Saunders at a catch-weight of 155lbs. It would be Canelo’s second world title fight at middleweight that involves a catch-weight. Canelo beat former WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto at a catch-weight of 155lbs last November. Saunders looks like someone that has to work hard to make 160.
If Canelo is able to boil Saunders down to 155lb for a catch-weight fight, he would likely have a huge advantage over him. The thing is, Canelo doesn’t need a catch-weight handicap to beat the likes of Saunders. That’s a fighter that Canelo beats even if the two of them fought with a 175lb limit. Canelo has too much fire power for Saunders in my view.
“The weight and dieting is always difficult but it won’t complicate things for us. We are professionals and we will make the weight,” said Canelo.
Canelo has to be having a tough time making weight at 155, but going one pound further at 154, is likely going to be tough for him. Canelo will probably make the weight for the Liam Smith fight, but it won’t be easy.
Canelo vs. Smith will be taking place at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Despite Canelo not being from the U.S, he’ll effectively have hometown advantage in the fight against Smith, because there are a lot of Canelo’s fans in Texas, which is why he and his promoters at Golden Boy selected this stage to stage his fight. Smith is going to be really up against it in this fight, because the fans will be on Canelo’s side, and the lead promoter for this fight is Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy. Smith may need a knockout if he’s to have any chance of winning it.