Canelo Not Looking Past Chavez Jr., Says Weight Risk is Worth It

By Steve Kim

On Friday, it was officially announced by Golden Boy Promotions that on May 6th that Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez will face Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

And a victory for Alvarez could eventually lead to a showdown with unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (who faces Daniel Jacobs on March 18th). This match-up is contingent on both winning their upcoming bouts.

Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) told a group of reporters (through Golden Boy President Eric Gomez) that he's not even thinking about Golovkin or any other opponent - besides Chavez Jr.

"I'm not thinking about that, it's not any pressure for me. I'm only thinking about Chavez Jr. right now. That's the biggest fight for me, it's what's in front of me. I'm not thinking down the line [of who I might fight]. People make the mistake of doing that but I'm not going to do that. Yeah, it's a big risk moving up in weight and so many thing are coming up after this fight but that's what makes it a great fight," Canelo said.

"That there's so many risks involved. In order to have a great fight you need to have all those risks."

Alvarez, who won the WBO junior middleweight title by stopping Liam Smith in nine rounds in September, will be facing Chavez Jr. at a catch-weight of 164.5 pounds, which has raised some eyebrows given his past statements that he was not yet a full-fledged middleweight who was quite ready to face Golovkin.

But Alvarez explained why he took the risk with Chavez - "The reason I decided to make this move is the fight itself. It's one of the biggest fights in the history of Mexico. That's what intrigues me, that's what made me make this jump all the way up there because of the significance of the fight."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.