WBO junior middleweight champion of the world Liam Smith and his team have said they will not fight Canelo Alvarez this Saturday if the Mexican fails to make the 154lbs weight limit.
This is a very fair point of view in my opinion as Canelo despite his talents, has had trouble in the past making the 154lbs limit on occasion and on other occasions, has been involved in catchweight fights between the junior-middleweight and middleweight limits.
You are either a junior-middleweight or a middleweight. Period.
His promoter Oscar De La Hoya was recently quoted as saying his charge is not quite yet a full middleweight and if that is the case, making the 154lbs limit should most definitely be honoured in this fight with Smith, the weight that is contracted for after all.
Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher this week has been vocal in saying that even if Canelo is one or two pounds over, that he will not put his charge in the ring with him.
Having said that, I can’t see any reason why Canelo won’t make the weight in all honesty, as by all accounts he has taken his training deadly serious – knowing that he is the challenger in this world title fight, not Smith.
Canelo is a man known to cut serious weight before his fights, a massive fighter at 154lbs and in the past has been rumoured to be able to put almost 25lbs back on in weight overnight after he weighs in, come the first bell on fight night.
This can be an advantage at times where a fighter has a considerable weight and strength advantage over his opponent but against a big junior-middleweight in Smith himself, it might not be as considerable an advantage as it usually would.
Cardio in the later rounds can often be adversely effected by putting on all that type of weight in such a short period and Smith is a man known to have a terrific engine coming down the stretch in the ‘championship rounds’.
Perhaps we are reading too much into this but one way or another, I expect a terrific fight this weekend between these two all action-style protagonists.
We are now just over 48 hours away from fight night. Here’s a decent build-up watch on the fight, particularly if you are not overly familiar with who Liam Smith is.
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