By Gav Duthie: Plenty of jaws dropped at the bombshell news that Amir Khan would be fight Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez for the WBC Middleweight title at a catchweight of 155lbs. Amir had been chasing a big fight for quite sometime and after he re-established his relationship with Oscar De La Hoya the fight was made quite quickly. Very few give Khan any chance against the Mexican superstar but credit him for such a huge risk. Although a surprise this was not an unprecedented move and this article will discuss some of the other successes and failures of boxers jumping two weight divisions for a big fight.
5. Stanley Ketchel v Jack Johnson (October 16 1909, LKO 12 World Heavyweight Title)
(Previous fight 5 July 1909 v Billy Papke WUD 20 World Middleweight Title)
In hindsight it was a bizarre set of circumstances that lead to this fight. There was a huge amount of desperation to dethrone Johnson as he was a black heavyweight champion which was unacceptable at the time.