By Ryan Burton
On May 6th WBO super welterweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will move up 10.5 pounds in weight to face former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at the T-Mobile Arena in La Vegas. The fight will headline a HBO distributed pay-per-view card.
Canelo last fought at 154-pounds, when he knocked out Liam Smith last September in Texas to capture the WBO belt. The Mexican star has never fought any higher than 155-pounds, even when he was competing as the middleweight champion.
In recent years, Chavez Jr. has fought between 170-172 pounds but did tip the scales at 167.8 pounds in his most recent fight in December when he outpointed Dominik Britsch in Mexico. It was the lightest Chavez has weighed in several years.
Former welterweight champion Shawn Porter is very interested in seeing how the fight plays out.
Alvarez, like Chavez, is usually the bigger man in the ring. Porter is very intrigued by the fact that Canelo will be significantly smaller than Chavez come fight night.
"I am curious to see what is going to happen. Chavez is a big kid. I think we have all heard about his training or lack there of, and how he prepares for fights but I think Canelo is going to have some work on his hands at least for the first part of the fight. Chavez is a big boy," Porter told BoxingScene.com.
For this training camp, Chavez Jr. retained the services of Hall of Fame trainer Ignacio "Nacho" Beristain, who is best known for his work with four division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
Chavez is also working with well known strength and conditioning coach Angel "Memo" Heredia. He feels confident of making the catch-weight of 164.5, which will be his lowest weight since competing as the middleweight champion in 2012.
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