By Dan Ambrose: WBC Silver junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (35-0-1, 26 KO’s) could be fighting for a paper title against World boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion Viacheslav Senchenko (31-0, 20 KO’s) on March 5th. Golden Boy Promotions, the management for Alvarez, are looking for him to pick up a title and are positioning for him to fight the little known 33-year-old Senchenko rather than someone more dangerous that could beat him.
It’s a fight that won’t happen unless Senchenko gets good money, though, because he has other options available to him, such as a much easier fight against welterweight contender Matthew Hatton. That’s a much more winnable fight for Senchenko without the danger of being knocked out like he would have against the stronger Senchenko.
Alvarez, 20, is likely going to be forced at some point in the near future to move into the junior middleweight division on a permanent basis because he’s huge for a welterweight and it’s reportedly hard for him to take off weight to squeeze down to the 147 pound limit each time he fights at that weight. In his last bout, Alvarez defeated 39-year-old Lovemore N’dou by a 12 round decision on December 4th at junior middleweight. In his bout before that, Alvarez defeated 39-year-old Carlos Baldomir by a 6th round TKO in September. Both of those fights took place at junior middleweight against smaller welterweights.
Alvarez hasn’t fought at welterweight since beating Brian Camechis by a 3rd round stoppage in March. It’s perhaps pointless for Alvarez to be fighting Senchenko given how much weight he’s going to have to take off and how little the boxing public will even care about the win. The victory will be the equivalent to Alvarez’s wins over his 39-year-old opponents. Alvarez needs to move up in weight and forget about fighting at welterweight. He could end up too weak to fight effectively in the Senchenko bout and there’s a chance he could lose the fight. He’s better off staying at junior middleweight and learning to improve his nonexistent defense and his poor hand speed.
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