Is Canelo not moving to 160 because of Golovkin?

By Boxing News - 07/12/2014 - Comments

Canelo Alvarez(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Chris Williams: In looking at how heavy Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KOs) has been in his last several fights in rehydrating to over 170 pounds, and how he’s asked to fight his last two fights at a catch-weight of 155 [middleweight], the question that you have to ask is why isn’t Canelo moving up to middleweight to compete with guys in that division? 155 = middleweight, and it seems strange that Canelo is melting off 20 pounds to continue to fight against guys that he’s heavier than in the junior middleweight division.

I’m just curious about what’s the problem Canelo has in fighting guys his own size in the middleweight division as Gennady Golovkin? I know they sparred together in the past, and Golovkin said afterwards that Canelo was a “Good boy,” but is there some kind of problem with Canelo not wanting to face guys in this division?

When you’re as big as Canelo is in melting down 20+ to fight in the junior middleweight division, I think he’s on borrowed time in that weight division. Canelo doesn’t see it that way though, because he said several weeks ago that he wants to stay at junior middleweight his entire career. Why?

Is he going to melt down even more as he gets older in taking off 30+ pounds to fight against guys much lighter than him or is this just wishful thinking from him? It’s easy for him to project far into the future to say what he’ll be his entire career when he has no clue what’ll happen in tonight’s fight against Erislandy Lara.

If Canelo fades tonight after the 4th round due to the weight that he had to drop to make 155, he’s probably going to lose to the Cuban star Lara. If that’s the case, Canelo would be failure to move up to 160 could undermine his own career. If the process of him making weight at 154 [or 155 in Canelo’s case] is leaving him only capable of fighting hard for 4 rounds against good fighters [not hand-picked ones with zero speed like Alfredo Angulo], then Canelo is going to lose each time he fights against a good junior middleweight. Lara might have his number, as did Floyd Mayweather Jr. We could soon ad Demetrius Andrade’s name to that list when/if Canelo fights him in the future.

It seems like Canelo should move up in weight and get it over with by fighting Golovkin and the other middleweights. Who knows? Canelo might even be able to beat them, and still be able to melt down to fight the lighter junior middleweights from time to time. In so doing, Canelo could have the best of both worlds. He could even fight super middleweights like Andre Ward, Carl Froch, and Mikkel Kessler given that he can rehydrate to well over the 168 pound weight class.



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