Mayweather chooses Canelo for September 14th – Breaking news!!!

By Boxing News - 05/29/2013 - Comments

floyd#261By Dan Ambrose: Just minutes ago, Floyd Mayweather Jr. tweeted that he’ll be facing WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 14th after all at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. ***News update*** the fight will be fought at a catch-weight of 152 lbs. Mayweather is really being nice here because 152 is nothing. That’s not even really a catch-weight. The proper halfway point between 147 and 154 is 150.5. Mayweather is giving Canelo an extra 1.5 lbs.

There’s no word yet about whether there will a rehydration clause in the contract to keep Canelo from blowing up to 172-175 after the weigh-in.

Mayweather said this on his twitter: “I chose my opponent for September 14th and it’s Canelo Alvarez. I’m giving fans what they want. It will be at the MGM Grand.”

Bravo to Mayweather for agreeing to take the fight. He probably didn’t want to face a ton of criticism by his loyal boxing fans that he’s ducking the 22-year-old Canelo, even if he has the perfect right to choose not to fight the light heavyweight-sized Canelo. Who would blame Mayweather for not wanting to fight a guy that weighed in at 172 lbs in his last fight like Canelo did recently? Mayweather weighed only 146 the night of his last fight on May 4th against Robert Guerrero. That’s a 26 pound weight difference between Mayweather and Canelo. Mayweather is showing a lot of courage to fight a guy that should be fighting at middleweight or better yet, light heavyweight.

I like Mayweather’s chances against normal-sized junior middleweights, but Canelo is more like a light heavyweight/super middleweight that is able to drain down to 154 [junior middleweight] and use that extra size after he rehydrates to crush his lighter opponents. If Canelo comes into the fight weighing over 170 on September 14th, he’s going to be awfully hard for Mayweather to beat.

It’s not that Canelo is a better fighter than Mayweather. It’s just that Canelo would have a near 30 pound weight advantage and that’s probably going to be too much for Floyd to deal with. Like I said, I think Mayweather can beat junior middleweights but I don’t think he can beat a light heavyweight sized fighter like Canelo. Kudos to Canelo for being able to drain down so much to get to 154 to fight welterweights like Mayweather. If he can get away with it then it’s sure better than having to fight guys his own size.



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