WBC president defends Canelo-Khan title fight at 155lbs

Much criticism has been given to the upcoming middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan, and a significant portion of that criticism has been directed at the middleweight title being contested below the division limit of 160lbs. But WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman says he likes the fight, and gives it his ringing endorsement.

"Canelo versus khan is a sensational fight. Amir Khan has tremendous ability, speed, ring generalship and vast experience in major fights, whilst Canelo is coming from his biggest fight in defeating Cotto las November," Sulaiman told World Boxing News.

As far as Canelo's catchweight title defense goes, Sulaiman also says it's well withing WBC rules:

"The fight is for the WBC middleweight championship and if there is any weight agreement, such is a private contract between the fighters. The division limit is 160, so any weight lower than that is considered as official and within the rules," he added.

This lends itself to a comment I made not long ago that there aren't any minimum weight requirements in professional boxing to compete in a given weight class, only weight limits. So, in theory, you could have two featherweights fighting each other for the middleweight championship, or heavyweight for that matter (as ridiculous as it seems). And as counter intuitive as that may seem, these are precisely the technicalities that pave way for catch weight title fights -- with the sanctioning bodies still happy to collect their fees from two big names.