“No catchweight, I will KO Canelo” – Ilunga Makabu
“It’s a fifty/fifty challenge” – Canelo Alvarez
By Boxing Bob Newman
Consensus pound-for-pound king Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had been on the special invitees list for this year’s convention, but coming off his epic win to unify all four 168 lb belts less than two weeks ago, it looked as if Canelo would take a pass on coming, that is until today. The best fighter on the planet did indeed appear before the WBC board and remaining guests, to the delight of everyone on hand. He even came face-to-face with his apparent next foe – WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu.
The two warriors were cordial toward each other with handshakes and an embrace – a far cry from the face-to-face with Caleb Plant, which erupted into a shoving, face-slapping melee.
Said a confident Makabu, “Canelo is the best boxer on the planet right now. So, I want to fight the best, and I accept, but there will be no catchweight for this fight. Canelo wants to prove to people that he can do better than others and I am quite prepared to let Canelo try for this dream, but I`ve got my also story to write down. Yes, this is boxing. I lost to Tony Bellew, but I came back. Now I`m telling you one hundred percent, I will knock out Canelo.”
For his part, Canelo opined, “I’m a very smart fighter. I believe in my power and my skills, so this is why we`re going to try. It`s a great challenge and a question of twenty kilos. It’s a fifty/fifty challenge, but I feel very strong. I love challenges and making history. That`s why I’m here, and I like this challenge. We will see if it is the most difficult challenge of my career on that day!”
The WBC Cares chairperson Jill Diamond shared photos of their visit to La Raza Hospital with several champs, bringing hope and inspiration to 120 sick children.
It was decided that the 60th WBC convention will be held in Kazakhstan. Astana, KZ was supposed to host the convention in 2017, but some unforeseen snags wound up seeing the annual meeting shifted to Baku, Azerbaijan in what turned out to be an unexpected, yet wonderful surprising success. Here’s to Kazakhstan having the much hoped for success this time around!
Fightnews.com® would like to thank the WBC for their professionalism, hospitality and top class safety protocols which allowed for a truly safe environment throughout the week in Mexico, City this past week.
If he fights Makabu theres gonna be an upset.
Good for Makabu. I actually like watching him fight. Should be a good action fight with Makabu able to take Alvarez’s punch
What a joke. The whole world wants to see him fight Benevidez and he does this crap again. Everyone wanted the 3rd GGG match and he fought a bunch of stiffs instead, all while he was praised by most people on this website. He is the smoke and mirror king, and a proven drug cheat. Get off his jock.
Willislv: i mean, yes we all want him to fight Benavidez. Yea. But dude. He jus ran thru all the super middle champions. Give him a break man. If benavidez had the belt, im sure it wld have been him next. Im sure hell get to Benavidez. Shldnt he be allowed to have a little fun at work too. As for fighting stiffs and not fighting GGG a 3rd fight, thats only a fair comment IF GGG had already beaten all the guys Canelo just fought. GGG wldnt dare go up in weight to fight those guys OR why doesnt GGG fight benavidez first???
Lol super middleweight champions? All paper champs. Liam Smith and Caleb plant couldn’t bust a grape. That’s a fact. I’m not saying Canelo isn’t a good fighter but he definitely takes the path of least resistance. If he’s gonna move to cruiserweight then fight Bredis. He gets way more credit than he deserves. This is a money game and GGG is 40. That’s why he doesn’t fight these guys. He feels he won the 2 fights against Canelo, which a lot of people believe and that’s the big payday. Canelo gets $40 mil to fight lesser caliber opponents so you can’t blame him for taking the money but you don’t have to praise his accomplishments in the ring like he is the second coming.
He went to super middle because the competition was weak. He could have stayed at middleweight and fought Charlo, who I believe canelo would beat but it would have been a much more interesting fight than Liam Smith, BJS, washed up Kovalev, Plant or that Turkish guy.
WillisLV: i can agree with u on a charlo fight. That wld be interesting. So heres the deal bro. Not sure if u ever fought before, my guess is NO. If u had Like I have professionally, u wld know that its not easy to be an undefeated world champ as Plant and BJS was. Those dudes were bad ass boxers. They still are. Canelo jus got them best of them. No shame in that. IF the supermiddle div was so weak, why didnt GGG go up to that weight bro? Why doesnt Charlo? Its cuz their complacent fighter guys their size OR smaller.
Fact is, Canelo is willing to take risks. Yes even the weakest champion in the division is still the champion. I hate when peeps discredit these guys that hold a TRUE world champ title. If their so weak, im sure others wld have already challenged for that title AND taken it. IMO, bjs and caleb plant both school a charlo, andrade or GGG anyday. My opinion
If there are four champions per division who is a true worlds champion?
Hey he’s going to fight benavidez, just wait ! He’s trying to make more history, he’s being smart. Canelo isn’t afraid of anyone. He marched his way up with toughness, and skill. Even if he, canelo loses, he still owns those belts to fight benavidez, or Charlo, or ggg…just on to your britches. I think he’ll beat this guy makabu, he might even knock him out. Boxing is just crazy today, you just don’t know what’s going to happen. Go Canelo !!!
This is gonna be rad!!! Usyk comes back down to Cruiserweight and fights the winner of these two.
I heard Usyk comes back down to Cruiserweight to fight the winner of these two.
Makabu is huge!!! Im a Fan of Canelo BUT i think he is biting off more than he can chew. Hope he doesnt get hurt!
Unless its a fix fight like the kavalev light sparring match, who clearly staged the K.O. took a dive to and handed out his belt for a nice check! All a publicity stunt for canelo. So, i have a feeling its going to be the same. Tbete is no way canelo can keep up with a real cruiserweight’s pinching power who is going to be like 50 pounds over the same day of the fight!
It’s an interesting test for Canelo, and I think that you will see a different style with him in that fight. He won’t be the aggressor coming forward. I think he will show that he can box and counter punch and let Makabu come to him. He will outbox Makabu who is slow and not an A level fighter. But the sheer natural size difference in this fight will keep Makabu in the fight and Canelo will probably win a decision.
Makabu says no catch weight for this fight? Well, he hasn’t seen the contract yet and I’m sure there will be stipulations that keep him weight drained when the bell rings. Makabu is pretty short for a cruiserweight and slow as molasses, so if Canelo can keep the African fighter off of him, he can pick him off while moving backward and remain on his feet at the end of the 12th round. That is all Canelo has to do to get his ‘decision’ win.
Another cherrie pick for Canelo Makuba not have the ability boxer and come forward open perfect for canelo style and he no have heavy power.
Let Makabu get a payday, let Canelo chase glory, let Canelo shut up Juan Manuel Marquez. Marquez likes to criticize Canelo, but Marquez tried to make Mayweather come in at 144 lbs, and Mayweather just came in at 146 and gave Marquez some extra cash. Canelo isn’t trying to make 160 and 168 lbs guys have hydration clauses built in to a fight. Can’t blame Canelo to try to get 175 lbs and 200 lbs guys have hydration clauses, Canelo is a short 168 lbs guy, so he is extra short at light heavyweight and cruiserweight.
The WBC is dropping the Cruiserweight limit to 190. So while there is not technically a catch weight the effect is the same.
Shades of RJJ. Canelo better be careful of competing simultaneously in multiple weight classes. Look what shedding 30lbs of muscle did to RJJ. This should serve as a cautionary tale to stifle the overly ambitious.
I think it’s a mistake for Canelo to go up that high in weight, his the best fighter but yet his not Superman
They’ve brought that dude off.
Did the WBC plan to drop the Cruiserweight limit to 190 all along? Or did they do it specifically to give Canelo an edge? I don’t know, but if it’s the latter it’s pretty shady.
Stop talking about how Alvarez is gonna win etc….That Guy just l’ost agrainst tony bellew who was demolish by kovalev!!!!It’s not gonna be eaven a fight!!!!
Canelo is hardly the best around. There are several smaller weight fighters who actually compete against the best.Just look at Crawford . Canelo avoided the best until he fought triple G and lost twice despite a good effort. Now he receives accolades for beating 168 pounders of no particular renown. In truth he’s really robbing the boxing public and his own legacy. I never admired him more than when he put up such a good effort losing to Golovkin .In any event ,has his middleweight been stripped ? He’ll never fight at that weight again .
By the way I just watched the first fight with GGG on you tube again and it’s impossible to come to a draw!!!!and the second at best for canelo was a draw…..So if Canelo wins a third one against the aging ggg it’s gonna be a 1-1-1 trilogy…..