By William Mackay: On Friday, Saul Alvarez failed to make the agreed upon weight of 150 lbs for the catchweight fight for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title against welterweight Matthew Hatton, the brother of Ricky Hatton. Alvarez came in at 151.8, close to two pounds over the limit. Alvarez was then penalized 20% of his purse for the fight. But it doesn’t stop there. They then negotiated that Alvarez cannot come in over 160 pounds for the fight on Saturday.
In other words, Alvarez can’t rehydrate more than eight pounds or else the fight could be called off or perhaps yet another fine. This could be a costly fight for Alvarez and in hindsight, he probably should have selected an actual junior middleweight to fight instead of pooling from the welterweight division and finding the light-hitting Hatton to fight. If he needs all these handicaps, it’s probably not even worth the bother of fighting Hatton in the first place. Had Alvarez just fought an actual junior middleweight contender, there would have been no problems because he would have made the weight by two pounds.
Hatton better enjoy the money he gets because he’s probably going to be beaten up badly and knocked out if he doesn’t pull out of the fight if Alvarez comes in over 160. Hatton has no power, no hand speed and very limited boxing skills. He’s faced no one of note during his career and looked average in beating the guys that he’s fought. Alvarez really should have opted for someone from the light middleweight division instead of wasting time on a fighter that needs a catchweight and then needs Alvarez to fit in at a certain weight after rehydrating. For all that Alvarez is going to gain from beating Hatton on Saturday night, which probably won’t be much because Hatton’s not considered a major talent, Alvarez would have been better off fighting someone like Alfredo Angulo, Kermit Cintron or Erislandy Lara than going through all these hassles.
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