20 little-known facts about Canelo Alvarez
By David Rouben
20. His last fight was his first contest over 160 pounds
A big reason why Canelo vs. Golovkin wasn’t made sooner was because Canelo’s camp expressed concerns about making weight. This despite the fact that he naturally weighs 175 pounds and would cut less weight to get to 160. Having spent the bulk of his career at light middleweight, it’s a full six-pound jump to get up to the middleweight limit. Following the Mayweather loss, Canelo competed at “middleweight”, but it was really a contracted catchweight of 155 pounds.
Many boxing pundits and fans regarded Canelo’s decision to compete five pounds lighter as a sign that he’s scared of losing his power. There was no way they were going to convince Golovkin to cut an extra five pounds, so Canelo had to prove he could fight at 160.
Heading into the GGG fight, though, he’s only competed at the full middleweight limit once. That was against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who agreed to a catchweight of 164 pounds since there’s a roughly 14-pound discrepancy between the two.
Despite the 10-pound jump in weight, Canelo looked the part of a middleweight. He bossed the encounter with Chavez Jr. – he connected at will, stood at his corner in between rounds and pitched a shutout. He did everything but knock out his opponent, but perhaps that’s because he wanted to prolong the beating. However, Golovkin interpreted that as a sign of his waning power.
But on the flip side of the coin, Daniel Jacobs was the first opponent Golovkin failed to knock out in 23 fights. It was also his first 12-round contest, and you could make a case that he should’ve lost. While we know Canelo has the stamina to go 12 rounds, Golovkin doesn’t, and that could be an x-factor in their long-awaited contest.
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It doesn’t matter how long it took to get to this fight, what matters is that it’s finally here. While this won’t necessarily be the biggest fight of Canelo’s career, a win would be his biggest statement. A fighter as good as him doesn’t deserve to be slept on this much. Depending on what version of Canelo we see in the ring, we’ll see if he uses his underdog status to his advantage.