It’s time! The last of the formalities is upon us before Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin square off at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas tomorrow night.
Today, starting at 5:30 p.m. ET, HBO will be live streaming the official weigh-in for the event with both fighters needing to come in 160lbs or lighter for what would be Golovkin’s record breaking 21st consecutive middleweight title defense — assuming he wins, of course.
There’s little-to-no worry that either fighter will have trouble making weight, though. Golovkin, of course, has been a career middleweight and has been making weight easily. And Canelo, who has moved up in weight, slowly, over time, has been seen with a noticeably slimmer build this time around.
There’s been a lot of speculation on what Canelo’s smaller frame infers, but I’m of the opinion that it’s a deliberate strategy on Canelo’s side. Having paid close attention to Canelo during training camp, I think Canelo studied his last with Golovkin and realized the success he was able to have boxing Golovkin the first time around, and now wants to work the speed and combination angle in the rematch, rattling off punches and escaping before Golovkin can respond.
That, of course, probably minimizes Canelo’s chances of scoring a knockout, but despite all the banter I don’t actually believe he’ll be trying for one by design. Canelo’s a pretty decent puncher, but not a monstrous one — especially at middleweight — so I don’t the plan will be to exchange big punches with a big puncher, but rather to use his youthful reflexes and speed to outbox Golovkin. How that all plays out remains to be seen...
In the meantime you can all catch a glimpse of the fighters condition right here during the live weigh-in, right here on BLH!