By Dan Ambrose: Joe Gallagher, the trainer for WBO light middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith (23-0-1, 14 KOs), has put challenger Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs), and his team on notice that if he fails to make the 154 pound limit for the fight at the weigh-in on Friday, then there will NOT be a fight this Saturday night on September 17 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Gallagher is not going to have his fighter Smith going out there to fight a guy that didn’t make weight for the fight in Canelo. The reason why Gallagher has decided to play hardball could have to do with the rumors that have been circulating around about Canelo being overweight and not close to the 154lb limit.
Indeed, Canelo’s recent photos look like he’s quite heavy still with just two days to go. Unless Canelo can get that weight off before Friday, he might come in over the 154lb limit. If Gallagher is serious about not wanting to have his fighter face an overweight Canelo, then the fight will be off.
“If Canelo doesn’t make the weight, (we’ll take) our paycheck, and we’ll go shopping, said Gallagher to RingTV.com. “To let everyone know: If Saul Alvarez doesn’t make 154 – they’ll be no fight.”
The fact that this is even an issue seems quite sad, because in recent weeks, Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya have both been insisting that he’s a 154lb fighter. If Canelo is truly a 154lb fighter, then he shouldn’t be having any issues making the weight limit for the fight. But the fat of the matter is, Canelo hasn’t fought at junior middleweight since his match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. three years ago in 2013. That’s a long, long time ago. Only Canelo knows why he stopped fighting at 154 for a three-year period after his loss to Mayweather.
When I see a fighter no longer fighting at the weight for a partocular class, it tells me that they’re having a hard time making the weight, which I suspect is the case with Canelo. Amir Khan recently said that Canelo had rehydrated to 187 for their fight last May. HBO didn’t give a rehydration weight for Canelo on the night of his fight. Trainer Freddie Roach said that Canelo rehydrated 30 pounds for his fight against Miguel Cotto last November, which means he came into the fight at 185 after making weight at 155. If Canelo is truly dehydrating down from the mid-180s, then no wonder it’s a problem for him to make 154. That’s a lot of weight to lose. I don’t think it’s healthy for a fighter to drain down 30 pounds, even for a short period of time.
“We’ll know Friday if he’s going to have any stumbling blocks. But as of right now, he’s right on target,”said Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso.
This is bad news potentially for the Canelo-Smith fight if the match is called off due to the Mexican star not making weight. Depending on how badly Canelo comes in over the limit, he might want to think about moving up to middleweight or possibly 168. Canelo looks huge right now, and I think it’s perhaps better for him to move up where he’s comfortable. You don’t like to see guys have to go through so much hassle to make weight.
Instead of Gallagher worrying about Canelo being overweight by a pound or two for the weigh-in, he should have made sure there was a rehydration clause in the contract to keep him from coming in over a certain amount of weight. There’s no use in worrying about a fighter missing the weight by a couple of pounds. Where Gallagher should really worry is if Canelo rehydrates into the mid-170s or into the 180s. Smith is a good fighter, but he’s not going to beat a guy that heavy on the night. Smith might even get hurt if he’s outweighed by 15 to 20 pounds on Saturday by Canelo. That should be the main focus. If Canelo misses weight, they should still take the fight. It’ll look bad if they back out of the fight just because of Canelo being too heavy. A rehydration clause would have been the smart thing to have put in the contract. If there’s a huge separation in weight and size between the two fighters on Saturday night, it’s going to force Smith to deal with a lot of heavy shots in the fight.
Smith can still win if he pushes a fast enough pace to force Canelo to fight hard. If Canelo rehydrates into the mid-170s or 180s, he’s probably going to tire out badly in the 2nd half of fight whether Smith fights at a fast pace or not. But it would be in Smith’s best interest to force Canelo to fight as hard as he can in each round, because that cause to both fade and lose power on his shots. We’ll see on Saturday if Canelo has the energy to fight hard for more than six rounds.