By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Abel Sanchez expects Canelo Alvarez to out-weigh Gennady Golovkin by five or six pounds when they enter the ring Saturday night.

Golovkin’s trainer is not nearly as worried, though, about Alvarez’s weight advantage over his fighter as he was when Golovkin fought Daniel Jacobs on March 18. Sanchez suspects Jacobs was at least 182 pounds by the time their middleweight title fight started at Madison Square Garden.

That’s 12 pounds more than Golovkin weighed on fight night (170), according to Sanchez. The 6-feet Jacobs estimated after losing a close unanimous decision to Golovkin that he weighed “probably about 175” pounds when he entered the ring for their HBO Pay-Per-View main event.

“He was 176 in the morning, when he woke up,” a smiling Sanchez told BoxingScene.com. “I imagine Danny was 182, 183. He was a cruiserweight. He’s a big dude. But Danny puts it on different [than Alvarez]. He’s a bigger dude. He’s got a bigger frame and he’s much bigger all around, just a bigger guy.”

Golovkin was 159.6 pounds at their official weigh-in the morning of March 17. He was 169.8 pounds at the second-day weigh-in Saturday morning.

Sanchez and Golovkin figured Jacobs wouldn’t add as much weight as they think he did because they expected Jacobs to participate in the IBF’s second-day weigh-in the morning of their 12-round fight. An IBF rule prohibits boxers fighting for their titles from adding more than 10 pounds over a division’s limit by the morning after official weigh-ins.

Jacobs, who officially weighed 159.8 pounds, skipped the IBF’s second-day weigh-in without warning, thus the IBF title wasn’t at stake for him against Golovkin.

To avoid such situations from occurring again, the IBF made an adjustment to its second-day weigh-in policy recently. Now, if more than one title is at stake in a fight for an IBF title, there will not be a second-day weigh-in.

Therefore, neither Golovkin nor Alvarez will be required to weigh in again Saturday morning. Regardless, Sanchez doesn’t think Alvarez will put on nearly as much weight as Jacobs did because it would negatively impact Alvarez’s speed, which is considered one of the Mexican superstar’s advantages over Golovkin.

“That doesn’t change nothing,” Sanchez said of the elimination of a second-day weigh-in. “Canelo’s a 5-foot-8½, squatty guy. If he puts on a lot of weight, he’s gonna be slower, not as mobile he would be let’s just say if he doesn’t. We’re saying this because of the Jacobs fight. Jacobs is 6-foot-1 and put on weight. That’s a little bit different than it is on Canelo. I don’t imagine him being too heavy. But if he is, it’s just gonna make him less mobile.”

Sanchez envisions Alvarez weighing “175 or 176” pounds when the opening bell rings for his middleweight showdown with Golovkin, the defending IBF, IBO, WBA and WBC 160-pound champion. We might never know their true weights on fight night, however, because Sanchez said Golovkin will only get on HBO’s unofficial scale at T-Mobile Arena if Alvarez agrees to do so.

“If Canelo decides not to weigh in,” Sanchez said, “then we won’t weigh in.”

Golovkin weighed 170 pounds on HBO’s unofficial scale the night he boxed Jacobs, who wouldn’t allow HBO to weigh him.

Alvarez wouldn’t get on HBO’s scale, either, the night he dominated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. four months ago at T-Mobile Arena. The contract weight for the Alvarez-Chavez fight was 164 pounds, so Alvarez likely gained more weight after that weigh-in than he will between the time he and Golovkin get on the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s scale Friday afternoon at MGM Grand Garden Arena and when their fight starts at T-Mobile Arena.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.