By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Sr. thinks WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) will put a ton of weight back on after making weight for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) and come into the fight around 173 lbs, close to the same weight Canelo was in his last fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout last April.
Mayweather Sr. doesn’t see Canelo’s huge weight advantage being any help to him against the much faster and much lighter Floyd Jr. on September 14th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather Sr. told thaboxingvoice.com “Last time Canelo was at 173 pounds during his Trout fight. It ain’t going to be no difference. He’s going to bulk up and it’s ok. Will he have more power? Of course he will, but he won’t be the same fighter. He won’t see the shots or be fast enough to counter.”
Mayweather Sr. went on to say that Canelo needs to keep his weight lower for this fight instead of rehydrating up so high like he did last time. However, I don’t think it’s possible for Canelo to come into the fight any lower than 165-166 lbs. because that’s the weight he’s been fighting at mostly after rehydrating.
If Canelo tries to come in lower than that he’ll be taking off muscle to get to that. Canelo is basically a middleweight fighting at junior middleweight still. He can use that middleweight size to beat a lot of welterweights but I don’t see him being able to beat Mayweather by being 20 pounds heavier than him. Canelo will have to get down to 165 and hope that he’s quick enough to compete with Mayweather at that weight.
Golden Boy Promotions negotiated a small catch-weight of 152 lbs. for the fight. When you’re talking only 2 pounds, then that’s not even a catch-weight if you ask me. If Canelo has to struggle to make the 152 then he really needs to move up to middleweight or preferably super middleweight because you’re not a junior middleweight if you can’t make 152 without badly struggling.
In looking at Mayweather Jr. and Canelo posing side by side at today’s press conference in New York, it’s pretty clear that Canelo has a huge weight advantage over Mayweather. I think Canelo looked at least 20 lbs. heavier than Floyd, and it’s going to be interesting to see if the weight will hurt Mayweather.
Mayweather Jr. should have played a little tougher in the negotiations by having a rehydration limit of 160 to make sure Canelo doesn’t go off into the stratosphere when he starts rehydrating. Mayweather Jr. doesn’t need to be fighting a light heavyweight sized Canelo on September 14th.
I’m just wondering what happens with Canelo if his huge weight advantage doesn’t help him for this fight.
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