Canelo Alvare z is confident he could beat heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk if the fight was made one pound above the cruiserweight limit.
Four-weight world champion Alvarez moves back up to light heavyweight this Saturday when he challenges WBA titleholder Dmitry Bivol. The Mexican started his career at 140lbs but has continued to move up weight classes and would be willing to face Usyk at heavyweight.
Talks of a fight between pound-for-pound No.1 Alvarez and Usyk first came after the Mexican looked to move up to cruiserweight and fight world titleholder Ilunga Makabu. Usyk is a former undisputed cruiserweight champion who has only fought three times at heavyweight as a professional.
Canelo's promoter Eddie Hearn recently told JOE about a potential fight with Usyk, stating: “When we talk about mindset and winning, he genuinely believes he can beat Oleksandr Usyk for the world heavyweight title. He said to me ‘if you can make that fight at one pound above cruiserweight [200lbs] I will beat him'.
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"I find it hard not to believe him. Sometimes, the only way someone like Canelo Alvarez or Vasyl Lomachenko gets beat is when they keep moving up in weight outside of where they should be. That’s maybe how Canelo Alvarez gets beat, (when) it’s a challenge too far.”
Usyk is unbeaten in 19 professional fights and standing at 6'3", he would hold a huge size advantage over the 5'7" Alvarez in a potential fight. Alvarez's has never weighed above 174lbs in his career, whilst Usyk weighed 221lbs for his heavyweight title win against Anthony Joshua.
The Ukrainian has admitted he would be willing to fight Alvarez at cruiserweight if he was guaranteed to not be stripped of his heavyweight titles. Boxing legend Roy Jones Jr doesn't think the fight is a good idea for Alvarez, with the size difference between the pair being too vast.
“Usyk beats Canelo easy, in my opinion but Uysk is the heavyweight champion of the world," Jones told iFL TV. "Why would you go down to cruiserweight when you’re the heavyweight champion of the world?
“Why would you go back down to cruiserweight to fight Alvarez when you have Tyson Furys, Deontay Wilders, Anthony Joshuas? You’ve got so many big guys in the weight class that you are champion at right now that it makes no sense unless you’re making way more money.”
Usyk used to weigh in just below the 200lb cruiserweight limit for most of his fights, so Alvarez's call to have both men weigh in at 201lbs for a potential heavyweight clash seems plausible.
