Canelo Alvarez and Jermell Charlo will step into the ring and face each other in opposing corners with one thing evidently in common. They are both undisputed champions as the ‘undisputed vs. undisputed’ draws ever closer, with the pair squaring off on Saturday night [September 30].
Another scenario which is also comparable is the fact both fighters have stepped two weight classes to challenge arguably the premier fighter of the weight division they moved to.
Speaking to Boxingscene.com, Canelo drew on his own comparison to Charlo. In May 2019, Canelo defeated Daniel Jacobs to claim the unified middleweight world title against Daniel Jacobs before moving up from middleweight to light-heavyweight to challenge Sergey Kovalev in November later that year.
In conversation with Keith Idec of the publication, Canelo believes that Charlo has much less apprehension about the move in weight than Canelo did when he faced Kovalev. When he met Kovalev, Canelo was shorter than Kovalev by four inches, with a similar height disparity expected on fight night on Saturday, with Charlo possessing a four-inch height advantage over Canelo.
Canelo believes Charlo’s weight jump could benefit the American, citing Charlo’s height and natural frame, allowing the challenger to feel the benefits of the extra weight gain.
“I think he’s gonna do well because he has height, and he’s a strong fighter,” Alvarez told Idec following the final press conference held at the MGM Grand. “To do that for me is crazy, right? But I think he’s gonna do better [at] ’54 because maybe he has struggles to make weight at ’54 because he’s big. But I don’t know. He took that challenge like I took that challenge before, and that’s it.”
However, Canelo has never campaigned for a prolonged, consistent period at the light-heavyweight 175lb weight class. Canelo would drop back to super-middleweight following his knockout win over Kovalev. Canelo would proceed to defeat the super-middleweight champions of Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant to become the undisputed super-middleweight king. Canelo would return to the light-heavyweight division in May of 2022 but would suffer defeat convincingly against Dmitry Bivol before returning to the 168lb division and defending his undisputed crown against Gennady Golovkin in September later that year.
However, Canelo does not hold any regret about competing at 175lbs despite admitting that it was ‘crazy’ for him to compete at the 175lb weight limit.
“For me, it was crazy because I’m not that big,” Alvarez said. “But I felt great. I felt strong.”
