By: Hans Themistode
Canelo Alvarez has been up and down in many weight classes over the past few years.
After winning the WBC and WBA middleweight titles against Gennadiy Golovkin in September 2018, Alvarez advanced 8 pounds north in the super middleweight division to take on WBA “Regular” champion, Rocky Fielding. After that, the Mexican star continued to easily handle Fielding in the third round.
After the win, Alvarez then relegated to middle class. Upon arrival, he stripped Daniel Jacobs of his championship title by unanimous decision. With another world title, Alvarez moved into the light heavyweight division, winning the WBO belt against Sergey Kovalev.
Since becoming a four-division title athlete, Alvarez spent the next year competing in the super-middleweight division. During his time there, Alvarez ended the titular dynasties of Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant.
For his next move, Alvarez plans to go even further in the weightlifting range to take on WBC heavyweight champion, Ilunga Makabu. The decision for Alvarez to step into the ring to confront the difficult knockout boxer was somewhat of a surprise. A few years ago, after winning light heavyweight gold, Alvarez revealed that staying at 175 pounds was too much for his body.
However, with Eddy Reynoso, his longtime coach, begging the WBC to allow Alvarez to take on Makabu, the Mexican star is now poised to put on weight in a bid to become the first boxer of Mexican origin to win the title. world brands in five distinct weight classes.
With Alvarez now set to face the biggest rival of his career to date, he could be well on his way to continuing that trend. If the pound-for-pound star is successful in his bid to win the world championship in the cruiser class, he’s not entirely opposed to the idea of doing a heavyweight race.
“I think a year ago I said no to cruisers and here we are,” Alvarez said at the WBC convention. “So I don’t think so. But I don’t know with Eddy sometimes. But I do not think so. My body won’t let that happen. ”
