Cotto vs. Alvarez: Canelo’s weight

Cotto vs. Alvarez: Canelo’s weight

By M.DeTyrone

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is fighting Miguel Cotto on Nov. 21 for the WBC Middleweight Championship *  and Lineal Middleweight World Championship at a 155 lbs. middleweight catchweight. The hypothesis is that Canelo is stronger, younger, and more powerful and that during the night of the fight he would be above 170 lbs., which will result in Canelo defeating Cotto who is a small, washed up 35 y/o boxer with no power that hasn’t fought quality opponents is his last three fights. In this fight, the 25 y/o Canelo is the betting odds favorite and Cotto is the underdog.

We don’t know from what weight Canelo originally is coming down from but we do know he’s been training since sometime around July and his team has stated that Canelo has sparred 172 rounds. Be that as it may, I’m not surprised that for the Cotto 155 lbs. middleweight division catchweight fight. Canelo at the 30-day weigh-in he weighed in at 167.8 lbs. and for the 7-day weigh-in, he weighed in at 160.2 lbs. We see the same pattern for the 2013 Austin Trout fight at 154 lbs. in that fight at the 30-day weigh-in he weighed in at 166.5 lbs. and then at the 7-day weigh-in he weighed in at 159.2 lbs. At the fight weigh-in Canelo weighed in at 153.5 lbs. showing us that he can lose 13 lbs. from his 30-day weigh-in to the fight weigh-in and from his 7-day weigh-in to the weigh-in, he lost a total of 5.2 lbs.

 The difference is this fight is two years later and what is supposed to be one of his biggest fights. Maybe Canelo’s body is the same from 2 years ago. If we look at what was another big fight for Canelo vs. Mayweather Jr. in 2013 at the WBC mandatory 30-day weigh-in he weighed in at 166.8 lbs. and then at the 7-day weigh-in he weighed in at 157.4 lbs. At the fight weigh-in Canelo made the 152 lbs. catchweight from his 30-day weigh-in and had lost at total of 14.8 lbs. and from his 7-day weigh-in to the fight weigh-in, he lost 5.4 lbs. Canelo cut 5.4-5.2 lbs. after the 7-day weigh-in.

Now, after the Mayweather Jr. Fight in 2013, Canelo has been fighting at 155 lbs. he struggled to make 154 lbs. vs. Angulo in a fight in which Canelo weighed-in at 155 lbs. the second was vs. Erislandy Lara in which he weighed 155 lbs. and finally in May 2015, Canelo weighed 154.5 lbs. for the Kirkland fight. In his last six fights has fought a total of 54 rounds and 36 rounds of them vs. 3 ex or current champions Floyd Mayweather Jr., Austin Trout, and Erislandy Lara. He’s fought 18 rounds vs. Alfredo Angulo (TKO10), James Kirkland (KO3), and Josesito Lopez (TKO5). There were questions about Canelo’s stamina vs. Mayweather Jr., Trout, Angulo, and even against Kirkland. However, it will be all irrelevant if Cotto doesn’t capitalize on Canelo’s stamina issues in the late rounds. 

The majority of boxing experts and fans don’t believe Cotto at 35 y/o can box for 12 rounds and that his own stamina is suspect and they believe that Cotto doesn’t have the power to KO a younger Canelo. Nevertheless, in 2015 for the Cotto fight… Canelo must cut down to 155 lbs. and lose 5.2 lbs., which is the same amount of weight that he cut down for the Austin Trout fight in early 2013. If Canelo makes the 155 lbs., catchweight then he will have then lost a total of 12.8 lbs. But that all depends on what weight, he weighs at in the fight weigh-in on Nov 20. One thing we do know is that he balloons up to 20 lbs. on the day of the fight, which he has used, to his an advantage vs. smaller opponents.

Many will be paying attention one of them is the weigh-in and to see how Canelo looks and if he makes the weight. I suspect he’ll make the weigh. If he doesn’t then Cotto should do the same thing Team Canelo did to the 39 y/o Carlos Baldomir. The second one is how much weigh Canelo will balloon up to on the day of the fight. Many people think that ballooning up that much weight is an advantage but it can also be a disadvantage because we don’t know how much weight Canelo has truly come down from originally.

 *Only Canelo will be fighting for the WBC middleweight title since Cotto was stripped of WBC title for allegedly refusing to pay a sanctioning fees of $300 thousand USD

* Canelo KOs after the sixth round: In the eighth round only one KO, this was Javier Martinez in the welterweight division. In the ninth round, he has three TKOs those being against Francisco Villanueva in the welterweight division, Jose Miguel Cotto in the super welterweight division, and Jeferson Luis Goncalo in the welterweight division. In the tenth round he’s TKO’d two opponents Michel Rosales in the welterweight division and Alfredo Angulo in a middleweight division catchweight of 155 lbs. Canelo has TKO’d one opponent in the 11th round and he was Euri Gonzalez in the welterweight division. In the 12th round Canelo has two TKOs and they were against Ryan Rhodes in the super welterweight division and Gabriel Martinez in the welterweight division.