By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) wants a rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr in the near future if the 24-year-old Canelo gets past his next opponent James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) in their fight on May 9th, and if Mayweather gets past his May 2nd opponent Manny Pacquiao on 5/2.
Canelo faces Kirkland at the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. This is a really important fight for the red-headed Canelo, because he’s not facing one of the live bodies at junior middleweight like the Charlo brothers or Erislandy Lara.
If Canelo can’t even beat Kirkland, then it puts Canelo in a situation where he can temporarily forget about fights against guys like Mayweather.
Canelo already fought Mayweather in September 2013 in losing a one-sided 12 round decision to Mayweather in a catch-weight fight at 152. Canelo vows not to fight at 152 if he gets the Mayweather fight again, even though the weight is only two pounds below the upper limit of the junior middleweight division.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThoKpCEFASE
“Hopefully, we can get the Mayweather rematch down the line,” Canelo said via ESPN Deportes. “The weight [catch-weight] affected me the first time. I did learn a lot in that fight. We got experience from that fight. I always try to look at the positives in things. But I know I’m not going to fight in a weight class that’s not mine.”
I hate to break this to Canelo, but 152 pounds is in the junior middleweight weight division. The junior middleweight division is from 148 to 154 pounds. The 152 pound catch-weight was just two pounds away from the upper limit of the junior middleweight division. Of course, if Canelo is talking about 155 pounds as the weight class “that’s not mine,” then I can understand where he’s coming from.
Canelo seems to have created his own weight class by fighting at 155, which is technically a middleweight fight and not junior middleweight. The middleweight division goes from 155 to 160. Why Canelo simply doesn’t fight at the full weight for the middleweight division instead of at catch-weights at 155 is unclear.
Unless Canelo picks up a non-controversial win over a top fighter, I don’t see there being a whole lot of interest in a second fight between him and Mayweather. It hasn’t even been even a full two years since Canelo and Mayweather fought each other in September 2013, and Canelo hasn’t picked up any wins were he really distinguished himself.
Canelo has a win over a weight drained Alfredo Angulo in March of 2014, and a controversial 12 round split decision win over Erislandy Lara in July of last year. Those wins were hardly good enough victories for Canelo to win back the fans that he lost from his one-sided loss to Mayweather.
Canelo needs quality wins over relevant fighters without controversy, and thus far he hasn’t picked up any of those type of wins. Canelo’s fight against Kirkland is basically a waste of time in my view, because Kirkland hasn’t been a relevant fighter since 2009. It would be great if Canelo fought Kirkland in 2009, but it’s been too many years since Kirkland has been relevant.
If Mayweather fights Canelo in 2015 or 2016, I see the fight bringing in far less pay-per-view buys than their previous match-up in 2013. The only way their fight does great numbers if Canelo faces Lara again and defeats him conclusively.
Canelo will then likely need a solid win over one of the Charlo brothers, and then someone like Miguel Cotto. Of course, Canelo wouldn’t need any of those fights if he were to fight WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and beat him. But I’m not sure that Canelo wants to take that fight, even though he and Golovkin weigh basically the same.
A win over Golovkin will rejuvenate Canelo’s career and a make a second fight between him and Mayweather a huge deal. Unfortunately, I just don’t see Canelo taking the fight against Golovkin.
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