Canelo defends middleweight title against Amir Khan

It was really a surprise reading the press release from Golden Boy Promotions from my inbox. Saul Canelo Alvarez, to battle Amir Khan for the lineal middleweight championship? Again what? Really?

Yes! Mexican star Saul Canelo Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) will be fighting UK's Amir "King" Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) for the lineal middleweight championship of the world on May 7, Cinco de Mayo weekend on HBO-PPV at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

I don't see this coming. Well, because of weight disparity. I mean, we all know that Canelo can easily make the middleweight limit at 160 pounds if he wanted to. He's been fighting for a long time at 154. And I believed he already outgrew the division, although he can still make it at 154.

However, Khan moving up two divisions north is something absurd. I mean look... Khan had only three fights at welterweight. He found success at 140-pound division, to say the least, but he has not done anything significant yet at 147. And yet now he's moving up to 160? Come on!

But anyway, just for the sake of dubbing the fight "middleweight championship of the world" I believed, Canelo would agree at a catch-weight no less than 155 pounds. Khan fighting Canelo at the middleweight limit will put him at a severe disadvantage. Khan's only advantage over Canelo is his speed, to a much slower, but dangerously stronger Canelo.

With an added weight, Amir Khan would really give up his speed advantage let alone his power. His power for sure will not have that telling effect on Canelo that will be standing at around 160 pounds plus during fight night.

On another point, this fight, in my opinion really screwed up the legitimate middleweight contenders. They denied the middleweight crown to the legit middleweights to battle for it. If we look at the top ten middleweight contenders ranked by Transnational Boxing Ranking Board: at number 1. Gennady Golovkin at number 2. Daniel Jacobs 3. Billy Joe Saunder. Man... these are the contenders that should have the opportunity to fight the middleweight king whoever he is.