Canelo Alvarez is specializing in doing impossible things. The recent one was the unification of the Super middleweight division, a goal nobody had ever done before in boxing history. Maybe that is the reason people consider him able to achieve something really out of everybody’s imagination: invade the Heavyweight division.
Alvarez started his professional boxing career in 2005, in a bout agreed in the Junior welterweight category. He stopped the scale on 139 lbs: it is important to clarify he was 15 years old. Since then, he has fought on 147 lbs and been a World Champion of the Super welterweight, Middleweight, Super middleweight, and Light heavyweight divisions.
The next step of Canelo’s meteoric route on boxing is getting a World title in a fifth different weight class, a goal just 5 fighters have achieved. His possible victim is Ilunga Makbu, current WBC World Cruiser Champion, in a fight projected to happen in May 2022. After this challenge, could he try luck with the biggest rivals available, such as Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, or Anthony Joshua?
Who suggested Canelo could fight and defeat heavyweight boxers?
Two members of the boxing family stated that the Mexican superstar could have many chances of succeeding in the heaviest weight class. It sounds even crazy but it is true. The first one of Canelo’s supporting voices is Malik Scott, Deontay Wilder’s trainer.
In an interview for ES News,Scott said “I think there are heavyweights Canelo can beat. It depends on what heavyweight is he fighting with. In fact, he spars with Frank Sanchez, a good heavyweight boxer, who has even said the Canelo could compete well in the division“.
Malik Scott on a press conference with Deontay Wilder. (Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
And it is precisely the Cuban Flash, Frank Sanchez the second boxing expert that thinks it may not be impossible to see Alvarez even getting a titlein the Heavyweight category. Contextualizing this,Sanchez is a member of Canelo Team and current Eddy Reynoso‘s boxer.
“I have sparred with him and I can tell youwith the utmost confidence that Canelo has heavyweight power. He can handle cruiserweight, and in my opinion, he could be a heavyweight champion if he put his mind to it“, affirmed Sanchez for DAZN News.
Frank Sanchez aspires to have a Heavyweight title shot in 2022. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
Believable or not that is the opinion of members of the boxing community, the ones who have a legitimate experience to know what are they talking about. And it the end, who knows what can happen in the future? After defeating Gennady Golovkin in 2018, it sounded crazy to imagine Canelo being the Unified World Super middleweight Champion,winning the Light heavyweight title against Sergey Kovalev, or even challenging WBC Cruiserweight titleholder.
