By Sean Jones: WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev could be fighting Saul Canelo Alvarez in November. There’s some questions fans have about whether Kovalev would agree to fighting Canelo at a catchweight if asked by the Mexican star and his promoters.
Golden Boy Promotions hasn’t restarted negotiations with Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs), but he’s already showing signs of eagerness to make the fight happen.
Canelo won’t get credit beating Kovalev at catchweight
The downside of Canelo fighting Kovalev at a catchweight is he won’t get credit if he wins. Canelo’s reputation won’t be enhanced if he fights Kovalev with the aid of a catchweight. The casual boxing fans will be in the dark about the catchweight, but those guys won’t appreciate the win anyway.
“It depends on the weight,” Kovalev’s trainer Buddy McGirt said to skysports.com.
How low will Kovalev have to go for catchweight?
The question is how low would Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions ask Kovalev to come down in weight for a catchweight. Would it be the halfway point between 168 and 175? If so, then that would be a 170.5-lb catchweight. That would be hard or Kovalev to do, but he could probably make the weight. His performance would likely drop, but that’s besides the point. His goal is to get the fight with Canelo no matter what. A catchweight would even things out.
We saw how drained and useless Julio Chavez Jr. was for his catchweight fight against Canelo in 2017. Chavez Jr. was so weak from weight loss that he couldn’t throw punches. His performance was so poor on the night that it made Canelo and Golden Boy look bad. Boiling down fighters to gain an advantage against them can backfire, and make the A-side fighter look bad. Chavez Jr. looked physically ill the night of his fight with Canelo from having lost so much weight.
Canelo doesn’t need catchweights for him to succeed, and it’s unclear why he’s used them in the past. Instead of going old school and sticking to the weights for the division, Canelo has sometimes used catchweights. Canelo is far along enough in his career where he shouldn’t need weight stipulations any longer.
Golden Boy hasn’t demanded a catchweight – yet
Canelo’s promoters haven’t asked for the catchweight handicap for Canelo yet. It would look bad on Canelo’s part if he asks for a catchweight, because this fight is supposed to mean something. It won’t mean anything if a catchweight is involved. The fans wonder why Canelo isn’t calling out some of the other light heavyweight champions in Artur Beterbiev, Oleksandr Gvozdyk or Dmitry Bivol. Some of them might be available for Canelo if Kovalev can’t make the 10-week tournament to fight on November 2.
Kovalev had a lot of problems last Saturday in beating Anthony Yarde. Kovalev almost lost to the guy. He looked good during most of the rounds, but then fell apart in the 8th when Yarde started hitting him hard to the body.
Disciplina. pic.twitter.com/d0E7jiUpEk
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) August 27, 2019
Sergey would be giving Canelo a gift by fighting at a catchweight
Kovalev wants to restart the negotiations. What we don’t know is if Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions will insist on a catchweight or rehydration clause or not in order for Kovalev to get the fight.
A catchweight plus a rehydration clause would be a double whammy for Kovalev, because not only would have lose weight for the catchweight, but he’d have to limit fluid intake when rehydrating until the secondary weigh-in the morning of the fight. In a perfect world, Canelo will fight Kovalev at the full 175-lb weight for the division, and not insist on any weight clauses and such.
Will Canelo be daring to be great by fighting Kovalev at catchweight?
Canelo (52-1-2, 35 KOs), who is referred to by his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions as “The face of Boxing,” is daring to be great by targeting Kovalev. The Mexican superstar wants to win a world title in his fourth division by going after Kovalev’s WBO 175-pound belt. Going after a world title at 175 is a move that fans will like from Canelo, but they won’t appreciate him fighting at catchweight.
On Monday there were rumors that Kovalev, 36, wouldn’t be able to fight Canelo on November 2, the date that he and DAZN wants, because it would be quick 10-week tournament round him. Kovalev just fought last Saturday night in stopping mandatory Anthony Yarde in the 11th round in Russia. But Kovalev is reportedly willing to take the fight on November 2, even with it being a short turnaround. But it looks like he’ll take the fight with Canelo anyway, even though it means that he’ll need to start training camp next week.
Does Canelo still want to fight Kovalev?
The 5’8″ Canelo is the smaller fighter, and he’s going to have problems with the 6’0″ Kovalev’s size. It’s possible that Kovalev may have scared Canelo off with his performance last Saturday? In that case, then it would make sense for Kovalev to give Canelo a catchweight if he asks. It’s already bad that Kovalev is fighting Canelo with just a 10-week turnaround from his last fight against Yarde. Asking a world champion like Kovalev to agree to a catch-weight be seen as a weak move on his part.
Canelo’s boxing fans will argue that he fought former WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding last December on a 12-week turnaround after beating Gennady Golovkin on September 15. That’s not the same as what Kovalev is being asked to do. Fielding was a weak champion at 168. He’d been knocked out in the 1st round not long ago by Callum Smith. Kovalev returning to the ring after just 10 weeks to fight a talented guy like Canelo is significant. Kovalev is 36, and that’s not young for a fighter. Canelo is only 29, and it was easier for him to come back after 12 weeks to fight Fielding. Hes a lot younger than Kovalev. Canelo already skipped his September 14th fight date. The November 2 might be the only date that DAZN has available for him in November, so it would make sense for him stay on that date. It’s bad luck for Kovalev, because he just got out of tough fight for Yarde.