by David P. Greisman
Canelo Alvarez hasn’t been at or under the junior middleweight limit for years, but he also hasn’t been very far from it. In five fights, from March 2014 through May 2016, he was 155 pounds four times and 154.5 pounds on the other occasion.
But he was 154 on the dot — and in the buff — when he weighed in to face Liam Smith this past Saturday. That was his first time as a junior middleweight since he was 152 to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013.
This first time in a long time may very well have been his last time.
“I’m going to sit down with my team. We’ve always said all along that if I ever leave the 154-pound division, I’m going to leave as champion. I think I did it,” Canelo said, speaking via a translator (Golden Boy Promotions executive Eric Gomez) after knocking out Smith and winning his World Boxing Organization world title.
Alvarez previously held a title at junior middleweight, losing it to Mayweather. He remains the lineal champion at middleweight, having unseated Miguel Cotto last year.
There’ve been questions for some time about when Alvarez would move the rest of the way up to middleweight, and whether that would come gradually.
There aren’t answers yet.
“We’ll see,” Alvarez said. “This might’ve been my last fight at 154. I’m not sure.”
A little later in the evening, he was more definitive.
“About the weight, we’re going to decide. Right now the way I feel, this is probably my last fight at 154,” he said. “I’ll fight the best, all the best champions at 160.”
Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com
