The Great Weight Manipulator

Uncle Ben once said with great power comes Great responsibility. Canelo Alvarez heard with great power comes Great Power.

Boxers draining down to make weight has a long history. When we think of great boxers there’s normally something that comes to mind. With Floyd Mayweather I think Big Money. With Manny Pacquiao I think P4P Greatness. With Mike Tyson I think dominance. With Oscar De La Hoya, I think Warrior. With Sugar Ray Leonard I think excellence and speed, with Pernell Whitaker I think determination and focus, With Andre Ward I think Smartest and with Juan Manuel Marquez I think Great Counterpuncher.

So What comes to mind when we think Canelo. Warrior?, toughness?, fearless? Money? P4P Great?. I think of many great things when it comes to Canelo, but the Highlight that defines him is, “weight Manipulator”. The importance of weight is everything in boxing and if you don’t think one pound matters ask David Lemieux who got knocked out of his fight against Johnson trying to drain one more pound. Trying to lose that 1 pound damaged him more than actually fighting in the ring. Juan Manuel Marquez turn down a very lucrative fight two years ago with Miguel Cotto over one single pound.

Canelo Alvarez has established himself as boxings superstar and plans to be the A-side fighter for the rest of his career. One of the benefits of being the A-side is dictating many terms such as where the fight takes place and how much the B-side fighter makes but also what the weight will be. Canelo’s history of manipulating weight makes him king and master of weight manipulation (how about all those times he fought smaller guys at 155). I also think what we’ve seen so far with the weight manipulation is the tip of the iceberg. For example he just went up to 168 to win a paper title against an opponent that’s probably not deserving to be ranked in the top 50 of the 168 division (The current super middleweight British champion could easily be beat by over 1,000 boxers, even Fielding would destroy him).

Canelo will also keep an eye on the light heavyweight division in case a week champion appears to somehow get a world title at that weight, when he gets the light heavyweight title he will be a four weight division champion. And because Canelo can comfortably make 160 and 168 he will play both sides to his advantage in the future. For example, if he takes a third fight with Triple G he will have it at 168 where he is naturally the bigger stronger man. If he takes a fight with David Lemieux he will squeeze down to 160 so he can we can weaken Lemieux as a big man like that can barely squeeze down to 160 without having a major impact on his performance. And of course if he fights Danny Jacobs in May, he will make Jacob squeeze down to 160 where Jacobs is a bit week.

Is Canelo Alvarez a great warrior, yes he is. But the train he is riding will be forever known as the great weight manipulating Express.

Photo courtesy of Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos & Golden Boy Promotions