Does Jacobs rate Canelo fight?

By Boxing News - 12/07/2015 - Comments

jacobs444(Photo credit: Edward Diller/DiBella Entertainment) By Dan Ambrose: WBA “regular” middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (31-1, 28 KOs) impressed a lot of boxing fans last Saturday night with his 1st round knockout over former 160lb champion Peter Quillin (32-1-1, 23 KOs) on Showtime Championship Boxing.

The win by Jacobs could open up some doors for him to get bigger fights in the future. Promoter Lou Dibella says he’d like to see Jacobs face former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. A fight between the two of them would be a unification fight, as Canelo is now the WBC 160lb champion. One problem that could get in the way of a Jacobs vs. Canelo fight though is the catch-weight division that Canelo has carved out for himself.

Canelo has staked out 155lbs for his fights, and he’s made that weight the limit for his last four fights. Jacobs looked weight drained in getting down to the 160lb weight limit for his weigh-in last Friday. Jacobs rehydrated to 175lbs last Saturday night, and he was in perfect at this weight. I don’t think Jacobs could drain down to Canelo’s strength-draining catch-weight handicap, but then again, I don’t see why Canelo would need a catch-weight for a fight against Jacobs.

If Jacobs is rehydrating to the same if not less weight than Canelo, then I don’t see why a catch-weight of 155lbs would be needed by Canelo. But if you look Gennady Golovkin, he weighs even less than Jacobs at 170lbs after he rehydrates for his fights. I don’t understand why Canelo would need any kind of catch-weight for a fight against Golovkin, when he actually outweighs him after he rehydrates.

“I would like to see Danny [Jacobs] and Canelo. I think Danny’s a star,” Dibella said. “Where does it put him? I think he’s one of the best middleweights in the world. I take nothing away from Golovkin. I think Danny’s one of the best middleweights in the world. What I saw tonight, Danny’s a star in the making. That kid is a superstar. He’s going to have a lot of alternatives and a lot of choices. A loss isn’t the end of the world [for Quillin]. I think he’s [Jacobs] become a much better fighter since then [his loss to Dmitry Pirog in 2010,” Dibella said.

A fight between Jacobs and Canelo would be a very interesting fight if it could be made, but I think it’s probably an impossibility, given that Jacobs is with Al Haymon and Canelo with Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. I don’t think the fight could be made even if both fighters badly wanted to face each other. But more than the Haymon-De La Hoya angle that might be a show stopper for a Jacobs-Canelo fight is the 155lb catch-weights that Canelo likes.

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Canelo doesn’t have problems making his 155lb catch-weight, but guys like Jacobs would likely struggle badly trying to make the weight limit, and I’m not sure that he could without it wearing him down for the fight. That would obviously be a positive for Canelo, but not for Jacobs and the fans that would be paying to see the fight.



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