Canelo on going back to 160: ‘It will probably be very difficult to lose weight’

Canelo Alvarez has done it again. Last night in Las Vegas, he knocked out Sergey Kovalev in round 11 to capture the WBO light heavyweight title. With the victory, Alvarez becomes a four-division world champion.

For most of the fight, it seemed that Kovalev was in control. Still, according to the scorecards at the time of the knockout, Canelo was ahead 96-94 on two scorecards, and the third scorecard was 95-95.

Coming into the fight, the talk was that Alvarez was going to try to go to Kovalev’s body, but as we saw, the fight ended with Alvarez landing to the head.

“I said in past interviews that was the intention to go to the body,” Alvarez said at the post-fight press conference. “However, once you are there, that’s when other strategies must be in place. It was hard to get to his body; it was unpredictable. It was toward the face that we won.”

What’s next for the 29-year-old Alvarez? He could stay at 175 and fight unified light heavyweight champion Artur Bertibiev, or maybe he could go after WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol; perhaps he goes down to 168, where he holds a secondary belt and goes after some of the big names in that division, or does he go down 15 pounds to 160, and do a third fight with IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin or try to unify against WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade? 

Who knows, but according to Alvarez, he seems willing to continue to make history and do big things at 160.

“It will probably be very difficult to lose weight,” Alvarez said about going to 160. “It’s always been very difficult for me to lose weight. However, we must continue creating history; I can do it.”

Obviously, when you are Canelo Alvarez, you have options. It would seem that going back down to 160 could be difficult, but Alvarez seems willing to do it. The biggest fight for Alvarez is against Golovkin. However, maybe he wants to do that fight at 168, which could make the most sense for both fighters. In the end, when you are Canelo, well, you could do whatever you like.

Photos: Golden Boy Promotions