Saturday night sees Canelo Alvarez have his first outing in 2022 as he goes to light-heavyweight to try and become world champion against Dmitry Bivol. It’s another remarkable fight for the brilliant Mexican and I’m expecting him to do well against Bivol, but what else is there left for Canelo to do considering he’s basically had great success in four weight divisions up to now.
We all know that it’s likely to be Gennadiy Golovkin for Canelo later this year if he emerges from his fight with Bivol next, but what’s after that? I know Beterbiev represents a solid test at 175lbs, but this talk about Canelo going on for the next seven years, what is he trying to achieve?
At the start of the year, the general consensus in the boxing world was that canelo would go to cruiserweight and take on my old mate, Junior Makabu. That fight had plenty of intrigue and it would've seen Canelo move to cruiserweight, his fifth weight class, in an attempt to become world champion at 200lbs. Is that his ceiling though?
There’s been stuff I’ve seen in the last year where it’s suggested could one day go to heavyweight. I’ll be honest. I don’t like that idea at all. You’ll have to search hard for a bigger admirer of Canelo than me, but for him to go to heavyweight against leading names and be successful is an altogether different proposition.
Roy Jones Jr was one of my favourite fighters growing up and I can still remember staying up the night he went to heavyweight and beat Johnny Ruiz to become world champion in 2003. Jones had been at light-heavyweight for a long time, and he plotted his move to heavyweight carefully. Lennox Lewis was also around that time, and it was no shock that Jones went for Ruiz. Does a Ruiz type fighter exist today for Canelo to win a title against? I’m not so sure.
Eliminating the really big guys at heavyweight such as Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, what’s left at the business end is Oleksandr Usyk. I’m sorry, but Canelo doesn’t have the size or power to be successful against Usyk, but it wouldn’t surprise if he believed differently and wanted the challenge. That’s the mindset of the guy. He’s always seeking the craziest challenges.
Obviously, the landscape could look different over the next few years and if the title become fragmented, there could be lesser fighters who get their hands on world titles. This could mean the likes of Daniel Dubois, Andy Ruiz and Filip Hrgovic becoming world champion, but even then, Canelo is giving away so many advantages.
The heavyweight dream for Canelo is an ambitious one and if he does go through with then he has so much more admiration from me than he already had. I fully expect him to become the main man at light-heavyweight in the next 18 months and then cruiserweight glory will follow in some form. To go one step further though, like only a few men before him have done, that’s a step too far, but one I’ll enjoy watching if he attempts to prove me wrong.