By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux thinks Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) is making a bully like move by selecting welterweight Amir Khan (31-3, 19 Kos) for his first defense of his WBC middleweight title on May 7.
While Lemieux does think Khan is a very good fighter, he sees him as simply too small for the heavier Canelo, who could outweigh Khan by a considerable amount of weight by the time the two of them step foot inside the ring at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lemieux feels that Khan might end up getting hurt by Canelo in this fight on HBO pay-per-view.
“It’s a bit of a bully of a fight,” said Lemieux about the Canelo vs. Khan fight to ESPN.com. “Alvarez is too big for Khan, but Khan is definitely a good fighter. Alvarez is just too big for Khan. I think Khan might get hurt in this fight.”
You can definitely argue that Khan could get hurt, but he might also win the fight. If Canelo hadn’t already been beaten by a welterweight in the past by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, then you say for sure that Khan is going to likely get taken out in this fight. But we’ve seen how poor Canelo has looked against the likes of Mayweather in the past, and for that reason you have to give Khan a decent chance of winning this fight. Obviously, Khan doesn’t have a great chance of winning, because he’s likely going to be facing a fighter that has a 15 to 20-pound weight advantage in this fight.
The thing that helped Mayweather match-up better with Canelo is he got him to agree to a catch-weight of 152lbs. Draining Khan down those three extra pounds may have given Mayweather the even playing field that he was looking to get. However, Canelo has filled out since then, and he’s clearly a heavier fighter than he was back then. Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez says that Canelo doesn’t really weigh-in 174lbs when he weighs in before he steps foot inside the ring for his fights, but I have a feeling that he might even way weight more than that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Canelo is weighing in the 180s or even the 190s now. Canelo said it himself this past week that he could weigh-in at the 180s or 190s for the fight, and it’s his business. If Canelo is that big on the night against Khan, then Lemieux might be correct. Khan could get hurt. The one thing that might help Khan for this fight is Canelo could focus on getting his weight down so that he’s able to try and keep up with Khan. If that’s the case, then Canelo’s weight might be a little lower than in his last fight against Miguel Cotto.
Lemieux will be fighting this Saturday night on March 12 on Fox Deportes against James De La Rosa (23-3, 13 KOs) in a 10 round fight from the Olympia Theatre, in Montreal, Canada.
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