Canelo vs. Kirkland at 155lb catch-weight

By Boxing News - 01/26/2015 - Comments

canelo76By Dan Ambrose: The May 2nd fight between former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) and the ring rusty James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) will be taking place at a catch-weight of 155 pounds instead of at the regulation weight of 154 for junior middleweight, according to Steve Kim.

The fight will essentially be another middleweight bout for the red-headed Canelo, who has fought his last two fights at 155 pound catch-weights against Erislandy Lara and Alfredo Angulo.

The obvious question that you have to ask the 24-year-old Canelo is why doesn’t he just move up to middleweight straight away and fight at the full weight for the division since he’s already fighting at middleweight. He’s had his last two fights in that division. But the obvious answer is that if Canelo commits himself to middleweight, he’ll have huge pressure put on him to face WBA 160lb champion Gennady Golovkin, and I don’t think that’s a fight that Canelo or his handlers at Golden Boy Promotions wants.

Golovkin is still in his prime and he has major power. Each time Golovkin would make contact with Canelo, he’d have the potential of either knocking him out or busting him up. Golovkin and Canelo sparred together in the past. That might be one of the reasons why Canelo isn’t too eager to move up to the full weight for the middleweight division.

The interesting thing is Canelo weighs around the same amount as Golovkin does after he rehyhdrates for his fights, yet Golovkin fights at middleweight while Canelo is fighting at junior middleweight, or at least he used to fight in that division.

“For those who are bothered by the 155 catch-weight for Kirkland-Canelo, last I checked neither has a 154-belt, this isn’t Garcia-Peterson,” Kim said on his twitter. “I’m told James Kirkland sparred on both Fri and Sat in Austin, so yeah, he’s begun training for Canelo, already #Roadto155 #boxing.”

It’s unknown right now whether Kirkland will be trained by his old trainer Ann Wolfe. But if he does wind up being trained by her, he’s going to be a difficult customer for Canelo, because Kirkland is at his best when he’s trained by Wolfe. A motivated and in shape Kirkland will be a nightmare for Canelo.

The Canelo-Kirkland fight is tentatively scheduled for May 2nd at the Alamodome, in San Antonio, Texas, USA. The date could change if Floyd Mayweather Jr faces Manny Pacquiao, because there’s no way that Canelo vs. Kirkland can compete against a monster fight like that. However, Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions plan on camping on the May 2nd date if Mayweather faces Miguel Cotto or Amir Khan on Showtime.

That’ll be a situation where both fights will be fouled up if Canelo does this, because not only will Mayweather’s fight be seen by a lot less people, Canelo’s own fight will wind up being seen by far fewer boxing fans. It’ll be a case of Canelo hurting his own cause by sticking to the May 2nd date and trying to compete against a fighter that is more popular than him in the United States in the case of Mayweather.



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