Bradley vs. Rios winner could face Canelo

By Boxing News - 10/28/2015 - Comments

bradley222By Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s had a conversation with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya about having Saul “Canelo” Alvarez face the winner of the November 7th fight between Top Rank fighters Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley. According to Arum, De La Hoya loves the idea.

Arum wants either Rios or Bradley to face Canelo next if he gets past WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in their fight next month on November 21st. As for WBC mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin, he would be the odd man out in the equation.

Presumably, the Canelo vs. the winner of the Rios-Bradley fight would be on HBO pay-per-view. I don’t know how you can sell a horrible mismatch like that to the boxing public because Canelo would have such a huge weight and size advantage over those two guys. There would be absolutely no suspense at all because the fans would know immediately that it was just another showcase fight for Canelo like his mismatches with the slow as molasses Alfredo Angulo and the inactive James Kirkland. But at least those guys had some size to them that allowed them to share the same ring with Canelo. Rios and Bradley are just small fighters that have no business fighting a middleweight like Canelo. I say middleweight because that’s what Canelo is. He’s fought his last three fights at middleweight at a catch-weight of 155, and he’s about to fight his fourth consecutive fight at middleweight against WBC champion Miguel Cotto. Never mind the fact that the weight is at 155. Canelo will likely rehydrate 20 pounds and come into the fight at 175 or close to that weight.

Golovkin would get the WBC title by either the Cotto-Canelo winner vacating it or having it stripped from them by the World Boxing Council for failing to defend the title against Golovkin.

Canelo vs. the Bradley-Rios winner would be like a circus act rather than a credible fight in my view. It would like Canelo facing Josesito Lopez back when Lopez was a light welterweight.

“If Bradley wins and is not fighting Pacquiao, I’d like to make him with Canelo,” Arum said via Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “That’s a good fight. If Canelo beats Cotto, I’ve talked to Oscar about the winner of Bradley-Rios fighting Canelo, and he loves it,” Arum said.

Bradley and Arum have already talked in the past about wanting to make the Canelo fight, and it looks like they could get their wish if all the pieces of the puzzle play out correctly. Arum will make out well regardless. If Bradley loses the fight, then Rios will take the fight with Canelo instead. Arum promotes Rios too.

I can’t see a fight between Rios and Canelo being a good fight. It would be a mismatch due to the size differences between the two fighters. Canelo is a big 175lb fighter, whereas Rios rehydrates close to 160 for his fights. Canelo would have at least a 15 pound weight advantage over Rios. It would be the same story with the tiny 5’6” Bradley. He would likely rehydrate to 160, and find himself giving away almost 20 pounds to Canelo.

The question is what weight would a Rios vs. Canelo or Bradley vs. Canelo take place at? It would look bad if Canelo dragged one of those guys up to his favorite catch-weight of 155lbs. But I guess if they wanted the payday, they would have to do pretty much whatever Canelo said. But it would make Canelo look bad that he needed a weight advantage over guys that are much smaller than him.

Canelo was recently saying that Golovkin would need to fight him at a catch-weight of 155lbs because he doesn’t see himself as a full middleweight. We’re talking about only five pounds of weight that separates them. But if Canelo turns around and fights the winner of the Bradley-Rios fight, he would easily have a 15 pound weight advantage over them. That’s pretty incredible.

It wouldn’t be sporting unless Canelo were willing to drop down to a light catch-weight of say 152lbs like he did against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Bradley started his career out as a light welterweight, and he’s still pretty much a pumped up light welterweight.

Rios started his career as a lightweight, and he ate himself out of the division. Rios is still pretty much just a lightweight. He’s not a legitimate welterweight, and if you put him in with a real welterweight like Keith Thurman, he’d likely get blown out of the ring.



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