By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez’s move up to 168 pounds was worth the weight.
The WBA/WBC middleweight champion hasn’t had any difficulty coming back down to 160 pounds for his fight against Daniel Jacobs on Saturday night. It’s rare for a boxer to move back down eight pounds once he moves up, but it’s been a relatively painless process for the Mexican icon.
“I feel great,” Alvarez said before a press conference Wednesday at MGM Grand. “This is my weight class. I feel comfortable at this weight class. We had the right sparring. We had the hard work, as always, and I feel really good right now.”
For Alvarez, the 5-feet-8 middleweight’s move up wasn’t made out of necessity. He still can make the middleweight limit comfortably.
The 28-year-old Alvarez decided to jump up to super middleweight last fall to win what, technically, was a world title in his third weight class. He knocked out England’s Rocky Fielding in the third round to win the WBA world super middleweight title December 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Fielding (27-2, 15 KOs), who stood 7½ inches taller than Alvarez, was the WBA’s secondary champion at 168 pounds. Fellow Brit Callum Smith (25-0, 18 KOs) is the WBA’s true super middleweight champion.
Smith stopped Fielding in the first round of their non-title bout in November 2015 in Liverpool.
In Jacobs, Alvarez will encounter a big middleweight. The 6-feet Jacobs said he’ll weigh about 174 or 175 pounds when he enters the ring at T-Mobile Arena (DAZN; 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT).
Alvarez weighed less than that when he stepped into the ring to face Fielding in a super middleweight match. Alvarez weighed in at a career-high 167¼ pounds for the Fielding fight.
There is a rehydration clause in the contracts for Alvarez and Jacobs.
The 32-year-old Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) cannot weigh more than 170 pounds at a second-day weigh-in Saturday morning without paying a substantial financial penalty – a low-six-figure sum per pound, according to multiple sources. The 170-pound limit also applies to Alvarez (51-1-2, 35 KOs).
The rehydration clause was negotiated into the deal by Alvarez’s team because the IBF’s second-day weigh-in doesn’t apply to this bout, as it’s a unification fight. Jacobs owns the IBF middleweight title.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
