By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez re-tweeted a post today from somebody that reminded fans that Badou Jack was willing to fight the Mexican star at 168 only two years ago in 2021.
The post that Canelo re-Tweeted was one to show that he wasn’t the ‘bad guy’ for insisting the 39-year-old Badou Jack drain down to 180 lbs to defend his WBC cruiserweight title, with an added rehydration clause.
Now, Badou is rejecting Canelo’s request for a 180-lb catchweight + rehydration clause for a fight for his recently won WBC cruiserweight title. So that you know, the weight limit for the cruiserweight division is 200 lbs.
For all intents and purposes, If Badou agreed to Canelo’s requests, he would be selling his WBC cruiserweight title to him to get a big payday for fighting the Mexican star at a 180-lb strength-draining catchweight + rehydration clause.
When Badou offered to fight Canelo at 168, the Sweden native was campaigning at 175, so he would need only seven pounds to come down to fight him.
However, in the last two years, Badou has bulked up to 200+ lbs, and his walking-around weight is reportedly 210 lbs.
“In July 2021, Jack said he’d fight 168 Canelo at 175.
In June 2023, Jack is 200 and tells garden gnome Canelo — who is still holding his 168 belts — to fight him at cruiser.
Canelo agrees to fight at 180 (still cruiser), but Jack says no way, and now Canelo is the bad guy? 😂” @HardTimesBoxing.
It goes without that that it would be a massive shift in weight for Badou to dehydrate down to 180 lbs & then deal with the rehydration clause for a title defense of his WBC cruiserweight belt against Canelo.
For all that to be possible, Badou would need to diet by not eating to lose massive amounts of muscle, run daily to help trim down and then dehydrate like mad to make the 180-lb catchweight limit + rehydration clause combination.
To say that Badou would be the equivalent of a zombie on fight night against Canelo is a given. Badou would be so weakened that he would likely offer little resistance, making it a cakewalk for Canelo to capture his fifth division world title.
It’s bad enough that Canelo is targeting the 39-year-old Badou Jack to try and capture his fifth division world title at cruiserweight because he’s arguably the weakest link among the champions in the 200-lb division. The arguably more talented champions at cruiserweight are these guys:
- Jai Opetaia – IBF
- Arsen Goulamirian – WBA
- Chris Billiam-Smith – WBO
Badou recently defeated WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu by a twelfth round knockout last February to capture his belt.
