Canelo facing tall order in Alamodome bout
Pound-for-pound king is giving away 7 inches to super middleweight champ
As Canelo Alvarez climbs through the ropes tonight at the Alamodome, he will need to look to the rafters to stare down his opponent.
At 6-foot-3, Callum Smith is 7 inches taller than Alvarez — with a much longer reach to match.
Yet Alvarez — all 5-feet, 8 inches of him — will barely flinch. He’s been in there with the likes of Gennadiy Golovkin, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Amir Khan, Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Some of the biggest names in the sport. Yet Smith will be the tallest.
“I know it’s a risk, but I like taking risks,” Alvarez said during the lead-up to the fight. “We’re fighting the No. 1 guy at 168 pounds. He’s a good fighter, an important fighter. I like the challenges to continue making history.”
The two will be fighting for Smith’s version of the WBA super middleweight title and also the vacant WBC 168-pound crown on the streaming service DAZN (7 p.m.) and pay-per-view for nonsubscribers.
The Alamodome will seat 11,400 to adhere to social-distancing guidelines as part of COVID-19 protocols.
When Alvarez fought in San Antonio in 2013, 39,247 fans packed the Alamodome to see the Mexican superstar defeat Austin Trout in a 12-round decision.
The fans, many of whom paid $2,000 for ringside seats and thousands more for tickets on the secondary market, will be there to see Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs), to many the top pound-forpound fighter in the world.
But it’s been rough year for the redhead out of Jalisco, Mexico, and not just because of the pandemic.
He severed ties with longtime
promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, and ended his 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN after just three fights to become a free agent.
Alvarez’s split with De La Hoya reportedly was ugly.
“Obviously, it’s been very difficult,” Alvarez told ESPN.com.
But now the fighter says he’s ready to move on.
“The last year, we were just not seeing eye to eye; we were not working well together,” Alvarez said of De La Hoya in the ESPN.com interview. “But before that we had great years working together. And I don’t wish him ill. I wish him the best.”
The contract he signed with DAZN for this fight is a one-fight deal.
So now, free from ties to a particular promoter, Alvarez can negotiate with everyone.
Where that leads him remains to be seen. This is his first and only fight of 2020, coming off a year in which he defeated Daniel Jacobs to unify three middleweight titles.
And he went up two weight classes to take on light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev, winning by knockout.
He said he wants to unify the 168-pound division, which presumably means future fights against IBF champ Caleb Plant and/or WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders.
Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn of Great Britain, co-promoter of tonight’s card, promotes Saunders and, interestingly, Golovkin.
Alvarez is 1-0-1 in two fights against GGG and a third to complete the trilogy would make sense. It’s the fight fans want to see.
Yet Alvarez, who also promotes young fighters in Mexico, recently downplayed talk of a third GGG fight.
“We all know that the only fight Golovkin wants, maybe to retire after, is the fight against me,” Alvarez told the ESPN website. “We were in talks before he pandemic started, we were in talks to make a fight this year, but unfortunately the whole pandemic issue happened and
all that was canceled.
“But right now, the most important thing, what we have in mind, are other objectives. The first is Callum Smith. We want to unify the titles at 168 and continue making history. We will see about Golovkin later.”
Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) will be seeking to avenge a loss by his brother Liam to Alvarez four years ago at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
For his part, Smith thinks Alvarez just might be better suited to campaign at 160 pounds in the middleweight division than he is at 168 or super middleweight.
“In my opinion, no, he’s not a super middleweight,” the champion from Liverpool, England, told ESPN.com. “Yes, he’s been there before, fought Kovalev, but if you look at the champions at super middleweight, they’re all big lads. There’s only so much size your ability can make up for. We saw it with (Vasiliy) Lomachenko (against Teofimo Lopez).
“I think that will be the case for Canelo against me. I will be too big for him.”
A four-division champion, Alvarez can still do damage against the bigger Smith, particularly if he can get inside.
“I know he’s a tall fighter. I know he’s a strong fighter,” said Alvarez, who like Smith weighed in at the 168-pound limit. “But with the experience I have, whether you’re tall or short, it doesn’t matter to me.”