By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn says Canelo Alvarez thinks he’d beat unified three-belt heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, albeit if he drained down from his last weight of 221 lbs to 201 lbs to fight him at heavyweight.
That would be one pound above the 200-lb cruiserweight limit, allowing Canelo to battle for Usyk’s IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight titles.
Before a fight between Canelo and Usyk can become a reality, the Mexican star still would need to defeat WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on Saturday and Gennadiy Golovkin in September.
Also, Usyk would need to defeat Anthony Joshua in their rematch in July. As you can see, there are many hurdles that would need to be overcome before we could see a fight between Canelo and Usyk.
In other words, Canelo believes he’d beat a weight-drained Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) if he were willing to lose that kind of weight to fight him. Even if Usyk did lose the weight, he’d beat Canelo because he’s a much better fighter than him, with superior size and mobility.
The 5’8″ Canelo looked terrible against a washed-up 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev in 2019, and he would be overmatched entirely against even a drained Usyk.
That will not happen, especially with Usyk making massive money as the #1 heavyweight in the division.
When Usyk was the undisputed champion at cruiserweight back in 2018, he would have toyed with the current version of Canelo Alvarez if there were a way of putting him into a time machine to face the talented Ukrainian.
Canelo has struggled to beat the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Miguel Cotto. There’s no way that he’d beat even a weight drained Usyk.
“He genuinely believes he can beat Oleksandr Usyk for the world heavyweight title. He said to me, ‘If you can make that fight at one pound above cruiserweight, obviously was a cruiserweight, I will beat him,” said Eddie Hearn to JOE_co_uk.
“I find it hard not to believe him. Canelo comes from a tough upbringing in Mexico. He now has more money than he ever dreamed of and has achieved more than he ever dreamed of in the sport, yet he wants to win more than ever. That’s a special individual, especially in boxing.
“Normally, there’s a fighter that not everybody agrees is great, but in boxing, everybody believes Canelo Alvarez is great. A clear pound-for-pound #1. I don’t think anyone would say differently. I’ve never met anyone so confident in his own ability.
“I actually think this is one of the hardest fights of his career,” Hearn said about this Saturday, May 7th fight for Canelo against unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) on DAZN PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“You have to understand that Canelo has come up from 147 pounds [in 2006 when he was 15-years-old]. He’s not a light heavyweight, he has no business being at light heavyweight,” Hearn continued.
“He’s really a small super middleweight, and Bivol is a good, strong light heavyweight, who is in his absolute prime, but Canelo Alvarez is nothing else.
“I’m not saying I’m a fanboy, but if you asked me to clean his shoes, I would. He’s an absolute legend in the sport,” said Hearn about Canelo.
Canelo is moving up to 175 this Saturday night to challenge WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol for his title. The oddsmakers are picking Canelo to easily beat Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), but they may be in for a shock and all the fans.
