By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez isn’t popular enough to call the shots to Floyd Mayweather Jr. to tell him that he has to come up to 154 to fight him. If Canelo only 22-years-old, and he doesn’t have the experience or the fan base to pressure Mayweather to ever fight him at 154.
When you’re a young fighter like Canelo, you’re supposed to pay your dues and fight the more experienced, more talented and the much accomplished fighter at his own weight, not yours.
If Canelo genuinely believes that he’s the better fighter than Mayweather, then he needs to come down to 147 lbs. to make the fight happen or shut up about it permanently because Mayweather shouldn’t have to give in to a less popular, less experienced and less popular fighter like Canelo.
To be sure, Canelo is popular, but he’s popular within his own fan base and he hasn’t become a national star in the U.S and definitely not a worldwide star. Maybe someday he’ll be a star, but not if he fights like he did against Austin Trout and not if he doesn’t fight a big star.
I don’t see Canelo becoming a crossover star until he stops fighting with huge advantage like the weight advantages that he’s had in pulling light welterweights and welterweights up to 154 to fight him, and then him rehydrating to the mid-160s or low 170s.
I think Canelo should forget about Mayweather permanently unless he’s willing to fight him at 147. If he can’t do that then he should forget about it.
Mayweather would be doing Canelo a huge favor if he moved up to 154 to fight him because it’s not as if the fight would take place at 154. Mayweather would come into the fight at 150 at the very most, if not a little less than that, while Canelo would likely do what he did the last time he fought and rehydrate up to 172. How is that a fair fight? Canelo out-weighing Mayweather by over 20 pounds.
Canelo supposedly won’t fight any of the middleweights unless they come down to 154 to fight him. Gennady Golovkin, the WBA middleweight champion, wants to fight Canelo and is willing to fight him at 154, but he’s been ignored. It seems like the only middleweight that Canelo would fight is 38-year-old Sergio Martinez, who is starting to break down physically due to age and the natural wear and tear from his many ring wars.
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