By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia sees WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is being too big in terms of weight to be facing WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the near future.
Garcia points put that Mayweather fights at around 150, while Canelo rehydrates up to 171 lbs and more for his fights at junior middleweight. Garcia sees that as being too much weight for Mayweather to deal with.
The only way Garcia sees a possible Mayweather-Canelo fight as a possibility is if Canelo can dehydrate down to 147 to fight Mayweather at his weight instead of forcing Mayweather to come up in weight and then gaining a huge advantage in weight by rehydrating up to light heavyweight [170+] to bull Mayweather around the ring.
Garcia said to Fighthub.com “Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a welterweight. He fights at 150 lbs. [after rehydrating] He’s not a 154 pound fighter. Canelo rehydrates to around 171 lbs., but if Canelo can make 147, it would be good. I will take Floyd to win.”
That’s a big ask for Canelo to boil down to 147 lbs to fight Mayweather. I don’t think Canelo would ever agree to that. He would likely try and pull his weight and look to get Mayweather to fight him at a catchweight of 151 or 150, and then rehydrate up to 171 or 172.
The only way it would work is if Canelo came down to 147, not 150, and then agreed to a rehydration limit to keep him from rehydrating back up to 170+. That would be pointless for Mayweather to fight Canelo if he’s still able to rehydrate up to light heavyweight and walk into the ring weighing over 170.
There are weight classes for a reason. If Canelo wants to fight mostly welterweights then he needs to find a way to move back down in weight instead of dragging welterweights up in weight and then enjoying a tremendous weight advantage like the ones you see former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. enjoying for his fights.
If Canelo would mix in some of his fights against smaller guys with fights against guys in the super middleweight division, light heavyweight or cruiserweight divisions, then it wouldn’t such a big deal because he wouldn’t look like someone that is just looking for lighter guys. But we’re not seeing Canelo fight middleweights, super middleweights, light heavyweights or cruiserweights. He’s fighting light welterweights and welterweights.
Even if Canelo fought at 160, the guys he’d be facing still would be around the same weight as him, possibly smaller. WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin comes into his bouts less than 170 lbs, so Canelo would have a weight advantage over him but not much of one.
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