By Sean Jones: Mairis Briedis has provided Canelo Alvarez a shot at his IBF cruiserweight title. The 36-year-old Briedis (28-1, 20 KOs) says he’s observed that Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) doesn’t have nice choices for fights at 168 and 175, so he’s inviting him to return as much as 200 to problem him for his IBF strap.
It’s understood that it will be an amazing leap for the 5’8″ Canelo to go from 168 to 200 to problem the proficient Briedis, but when there’s anybody that may do it, he can.
The essential downside with the 31-year-old Canelo goes as much as cruiserweight is the kilos that he would want so as to add to his small body. It’s believed that Canelo isn’t 5’8″; he’s extra like 5’7 1/2″, and that’s in all probability not going to get the job completed in opposition to the 6’1″ Briedis, who’s used to combating a lot larger guys than that.
Even when Canelo does take up a Charles Atlas course of muscle-building and packs on extra 30 lbs of muscle, he’s going to be so much slower and simpler to hit than earlier than.
For the boxing and that keep in mind how gradual Canelo regarded in his mild heavyweight battle in opposition to Sergey Kovalev in 2019, it wouldn’t be far more pronounced if the Mexican star chases glory by going as much as cruiserweight to take Briedis up on his provide of a free title shot.
As it’s proper now, Canelo has became a gradual plodder at 168, and he’s straightforward to hit, even together with his head & higher physique motion. Defensively, Alvarez is clearly not the fighter he was when he fought at 154 and 160.
Canelo’s energy received’t trouble a tricky buyer like Briedis at cruiserweight, which implies the Mexican star will discover himself in a grueling backwards and forwards contest for 12 rounds if he lasts that lengthy.
Briedis and his coaching staff can have famous from watching Canelo’s previous fights that his kryptonite is getting hit to the physique. You may finest consider Briedis can be focusing on Canelo’s midsection the whole battle, and he could not final lengthy beneath a sustained physique assault from the hard-hitting Latvian.
We don’t even know if Canelo will be capable to deal with the physique assault from IBF/WBC mild heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KO), because the two-time Russian Olympian is a vicious puncher when going downstairs to his opponent’s midsection.
If Canelo does bulk as much as 200 lbs to tackle Briedis, he could discover it tough, if not inconceivable, to return to the 168-lb division. We noticed what occurred to Roy Jones Jr. when he moved up from 175 to heavyweight to grab the WBA belt from a badly flawed champion John ‘The Quietman’ Ruiz in March 2003.
Poor Jones was by no means the identical after he trimmed off the muscle weight and returned to the sunshine heavyweight division from whence he got here. Quickly after, Jones was overwhelmed in succession by Antonio Tarver x 2 and Glen Johnson.
Assuming Canelo packs on 20 to 30 lbs of muscle to go as much as cruiserweight to try to take the IBF strap away from Briedis, he could battle badly as soon as he reduces all that muscle. In a best-case situation, Canelo may be capable to marketing campaign at 175 reasonably than 168, however he would have it VERY laborious making an attempt to cope with the killers in that weight division.
You throw a 5’7 1/2″ Canelo into the ring with a puncher like Beterbiev or Joe Smith Jr, it will be like feeding a man-eating shark a tiny Guppy. Canelo would even battle in opposition to the likes of Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez together with his excessive punch output assaults.
There’s no means that Canelo might match the amount punching of Ramirez at 175. Canelo would battle in opposition to a puncher like Joshua Buatisi and the extremely technical WBA mild heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
It’s uncertain that Canelo might dwell at 175 with these killers, and he can be pressured to empty again all the way down to 168 to return to his outdated division.
The factor is, Canelo can be a shell of his former self within the tremendous middleweight division after having misplaced 30 lbs of muscle, and he can be toyed with by the #1 fighter within the division, David Benavidez, who many boxing followers really feel Alvarez has been avoiding just like the plague.
