By Dan Ambrose: WBC cruiserweight champion Badou Jack has taken to Twitter to say he won’t be fighting Canelo Alvarez next because the superstar wanted to drain him by having him defend his title 20 lbs under the cruiser limit in addition to a “rehydration clause.”
Canelo wanted just a regular weight handicap; he wanted a monstrous one where Badou would likely be so drained that he’d be ready to keel over from water loss on the night of the fight.
The real question is, would the World Boxing Council allow Badou to defend his cruiserweight title 20 lbs under the 200-lb weight limit? Would the WBC agree to that train wreck? If so, where’s the sporting value of a weight handicap of that amount?
That would be a real health risk for Badou to drain down from his fight weight of 210 lbs to weigh in at 180 lb catchweight and then have without fluids overnight for the hydration clause.
He would be putting his life at risk in losing that kind of weight and dealing with the double whammy of a rehydration clause to ensure he’s properly weakened.
With Badou up against all that with the deck stacked heavily in Canelo’s favor, he might as well have given him the WBC cruiserweight title before the fight rather than after because there’s no way he would win.
The cruiserweight limit is 200 lbs, which means Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) wanted to fight the 39-year-old Badou (28-3-3, 17 KOs) at 180 lbs, which is just a shade over the 175-lb light heavyweight limit.
But the kicker is that Canelo wanted Badou’d WBC cruiserweight title to still be up for grabs despite the massive 20-lb catchweight and rehydration clause. No words.
With that clash now off the table, Badou says Canelo should give the fans the fight that they want to see against David Benavidez next.
That obviously isn’t going to happen because Canelo has shown zero interest in fighting Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) all these years, and you can’t expect him to suddenly decide to face him after his three consecutive poor performances against John Ryder, Gennadiy Golovkin and Dmitry Bivol.
I won’t be fighting Canelo next. They said the weight difference is too much, they wanted to drain the old man and fight me 20lbs UNDER the cruiser weight limit for the title 😂 Plus a rehydration clause.
Canelo let’s give the fans what they want to see and fight David Benavidez— Badou Jack (@BadouJack) June 17, 2023
Badou not being willing to drain himself to give Canelo a tremendous advantage over him could be why the Mexican star’s sudden interest in fighting inactive middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.
If Badou were willing to accommodate Canelo’s demands, he’d be the one that would be next because of these two possible reasons:
– Huge Saudi money from Skills Challenge
– Badou’s advanced age
– Opportunity to capture 5th division title