(Photo credit: Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) has largely been silent in helping out with the promotion of his own fight against Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) on HBO PPV on May 7.
However, on Thursday, Canelo made some rare comments about his first title defense against Khan, and he let the fans know that he believes he’s going to come out the winner and he’s not looking past the blazing fast Khan for their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“I am focused this training camp to be prepared to win on May 7 and maintain my status as the champion,” said Canelo. “I know I will be triumphant as the victor on May 7, I will not underestimate the challenge he poses to me in the ring.”
If Canelo looks past Khan, he could be sorry for it. He’s a lot different than the guys that Canelo has been fighting lately. He’s had some slow guys that he’s been fighting lately, and Khan will be a much different test than what he’s been dealing with.
Canelo doesn’t have the kind of talent to underestimate someone like Khan. We’ve already saw Canelo lose to a smaller fighter in the past when Floyd Mayweather Jr. did a number on him three years ago.
In looking at today’s photos of Canelo, he appears to be trimming down rather than bulking up. It looks like he’s going to try and get lighter for this fight so that he can deal with Khan’s blazing fast hand speed. If Canelo comes into the fight below the 170s, it’ll be very surprising. He’s been weighing steadily in the 170s since after his fight against Mayweather.
The extra weight has helped Canelo beat the likes of Erislandy Lara, Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland and Miguel Cotto. If Canelo moves downward with his weight in the high 160s, he might be a little quicker. However, his punching power will probably take a hit and that could hurt him in this fight.
“Khan vs. Danny, that’s a fight that’s mandatory for me,” said Khan. “So whatever happens for me in this fight [against Canelo], I’ll still have the opportunity to fight against Garcia.”
Khan might have problems getting back down to 147 after this fight. He’s already complaining about being drained for his fights at welterweight. It’s hard to understand why he would want to come back down to 147 to fight someone like Garcia. However, Khan can’t fight at 154 because there are no big names in that division. Khan would be fighting little known guys and he might have problems against the Charlo brothers, Erislandy Lara and Demetrius Andrade. Those guys are good fighters.
When asked if he would fight Gennady Golovkin next after Canelo, Khan said “Look, I’m not looking past any fighter. But one thing about me is I’ll fight anyone or whoever they put in front of me. Not long now until May 7th, and we’ll dethrone Canelo and become the new middleweight WBC champion,” said Khan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jZ_TRPtewQ
Canelo-Khan fight will take place at a catch-weight of 155lbs. What we don’t know is how the weight will work for both fighters. Khan will be fighting for the first time in his career at Canelo’s special weight class, and he believes he’s going to have more punching power because he won’t have to drain down to 147 any longer. With Canelo, it’s impossible to know when he’ll be negatively effected by having to take all the weight off from the 170s to get down to 155. Thus far, Canelo has gotten away with draining down to 155 without being weakened by the process. If that happens for this fight, then we could see Khan take charge of the fight and outbox Canelo to get the win. Khan is already talking about dethroning Canelo. It doesn’t look like he’s going to hold onto the title though. Khan doesn’t seem to fancy the idea of fighting Golovkin. That’s a subject that Khan doesn’t even want to discuss. It’s like the third rail. Khan doesn’t want to go there and start talking about it. Most boxing fans believe that Khan will immediately vacate the WBC title if he beats Canelo on May 7 rather than keep the belt and have to defend it against the hard hitting Golovkin.
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