Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) gave his much heavier opponent Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) a real gift by not pushing for a rehydration limit for their catch-weight fight at 152 pounds on September 14th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This means that both fighters can rehydrate as much as they want after making the 152 lb. limit. That doesn’t mean much for Mayweather because he’ll likely come into the fight weighing around 146. But for Canelo, not having a rehydration limit will free him up to rehydrate to the 170s.
Mayweather really blew it by not insisting that a clause be in the contract because he’ll likely come into the fight weighing no more than 150 at the most and more likely around 146 or 147.
If Canelo rehydrates to 170-172, he’ll have a considerable weight advantage over Mayweather. Indeed, Canelo will have a weight advantage that most fighters would die for.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is how much the weight penalty is if either fighter comes in over the 152 lb. catch-weight limit. If it’s not a steep penalty then there won’t be anything stopping Canelo from choosing not to respect it and coming in at 154 and paying the fine for the two pounds that he came over the limit.
In the past, Canelo agreed to a catch-weight fight at 150 with Matthew Hatton in 2011 for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. Hatton came in under the 150 without any problems but Canelo came in over the limit at 151.8, and he turned around and gave Hatton a beating.
If Canelo comes in over the limit by 2 pounds, he’ll still be able to keep his WBA and WBC junior middleweight titles. He’ll have the money to easily pay whatever fine there is for him coming in over the limit. Mayweather could have made sure that Canelo came in on weight by negotiating a big million dollar penalty if one of them came over the limit, but Canelo likely would have never agreed to that.