By Dan Ambrose: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is not in favor of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) at a catch-weight of 164 ½ pounds for their fight on May 6 on HBO PPV. Golovkin says that fights should be taking place in the traditional weight divisions at junior middleweight, middleweight and super middleweight rather than at a catch0-weight like we’re seeing with the Canelo-Chavez Jr.
fight on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. While Golovkin has volunteered to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the past, he wanted to take the fight at 154, the traditional weight limit for the junior middleweight division. Golovkin wasn’t saying he would fight Mayweather at a made up catch-weight.
“Boxing is 154, 160, 168 but this 164.5 is bad for boxing. If you’re a champion you will defend and fight at your weight. What is this? New category?,” Golovkin said to Fightnews.com. “My focus is Jacobs,” Golovkin said.
Golovkin brings up a good point about the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight with it taking place in a “new category” of 164.5 lbs. instead of 168. Why does Canelo need a catch-weight to fight Chavez Jr? If Canelo wants to fight a super middleweight like Chavez Jr, then he should be fighting him at the full weight for the division at 168 pounds instead of having the 30-year-old Chavez Jr. drain down to 164.5 to get an advantage over him.
Why does Canelo need a handicap for his fight against Chavez Jr? Isn’t enough that he’s fighting a guy that is having problems just making the 168 lb. weight class period? Chavez Jr. has struggled to make the super middleweight limit since 2013. Why would Canelo need a weight handicap on top of that?
Chavez Jr. has fought infrequently since his loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012. When Chavez Jr. has fought since then, he’s looked very poor in beating journeyman Brian Vera twice, struggling with fringe contender Dominik Britsch, and getting stopped by Andrezej Fonfara. Chavez Jr. has looked as bad as James Kirkland, who was picked out by Golden Boy to fight Canenlo in 2015.
As bad Chavez Jr. has looked recently in his fights, a catch-weight handicap is not even needed for Canelo and Golden Boy. You can argue that the catch-weight is just an insurance policy to ensure that Canelo wins the fight, and doesn’t have another mishap like he did in losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr.
It was thought by some in the boxing world that Canelo was done with his habit of fighting at catch-weights when he fought WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith at 154 last September. Canelo broke his string of fighting at catch-weights for 3 solid years from 2013 to 2015 when he fought Liam Smith at 154 last year. But with Canelo now fighting Chavez Jr. at a catch-weight of 164.5 lbs. on May 6, it looks like he’s back to his old habit of fighting in new categories.
What’s unclear is whether Canelo will use catch-weights when he does move to middleweight after the Chavez Jr. fight. Canelo, 26, is supposed to be making the move to the 160 lb. division after he faces Chavez Jr. Supposedly, Canelo will fight Golovkin in September at the full weight for the 160 lb. division. That remains to be seen whether It’ll happen or not.
Golovkin has a fight this Saturday night against WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) on HBO pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York. It goes without saying that the fight will be at the full weight for the middleweight division at 160. Golovkin doesn’t use catch-weights for his fights the way Canelo does.