Canelo Álvarez
Mexican boxer Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez wants to stay in the light heavyweight after facing WBO world champion Sergey Kovalev at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Paradise, Nevada, USA, November 2. Canelo will leave the middle class where he holds the (super) WBA championship belt.
“I will gain weight, I plan to (officially) survive at 175 pounds (lightweight class),” Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs), told a press conference on Thursday (10/10/2019), reported by the boxingnews.com page. “That’s what we’re working on at the training camp.”
Before moving up to the light heavyweight class, Canelo had twice moved classes in the last 30 months. Canelo was in the middle class (160 pounds), holding the WBA and IBF championship belts.
The boxer born in Guadalajara, Mexico, July 18, 1990, also appeared in the lightweight middle class (175 pounds). In this class, Canelo has held the WBA championship belt. However, every time you go up to class, Canelo always returns to the middle class.
His victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was followed by his mid-class championship two battle with Gennady Golovkin, weighing 160 pounds for a 12-round draw in September 2017 and 159.5 pounds in his victory in a majority decision last September.
Less than five months after winning the super intermediate title, after defeating Rocky Fielding with TKO in the third round at Madison Square Garden, USA, 15 December 2018, Canelo stepped back into the middle class and won over Daniel Jacobs to get the IBF title, May 2019.
However, now Canelo moved up to two classes, to light heavyweight, against Kovalev. This duel will mark the fight for 17 consecutive titles for Canelo who is now 36 years old.
“I have done more weight lifting,” Alvarez said, talking about how he had gained weight from 160 pounds since his last fight against Daniel Jacobs to the fight against Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KO) at 175 pounds.
“We are not lifting weights that are too heavy, just doing more reps. We eat more protein, more carbohydrates and gain weight the right way. “
A win on November 2 will put Alvarez in the exclusive club as a former junior middle class who claims a light heavyweight belt. ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Mike McCallum are three boxers in history who have achieved these achievements, all three of which are enshrined at the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
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