Sherdog Boxing: The Weekly Wrap

Living the Dream...From Salford Sports Centre to Madison Sq Garden Rocky from Stocky V Canelo #LetsDoIt pic.twitter.com/G9gPqNBvJT

— Rocky Fielding (@Rocky87Fielding) October 5, 2018

”Canelo” Alvarez Opts to Fight Rocky Fielding at 168 in Baffling Move

To the surprise of almost everyone, this week Saul “Canelo” Alvarez declared that his next fight will be against England’s Rocky Fielding at 168 pounds. Set to take place in Madison Square Garden on December 15th, Fielding will be defending the WBA super middleweight title he took from Tyrone Zeuge in July.

For many reasons, this is an incredibly strange move. For years, Alvarez said that he was too small for middleweight and forced middleweight fighters to fight him at a catchweight. Now, after two fights against “GGG” at 160 and one against Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. at 164, Alvarez has apparently decided he is too big for middleweight and wants to fight at 168 pounds, except that Alvarez’s boss at Golden Boy, Eric Gomez, has been telling people that after Fielding he’d like to see Canelo-Mayweather 2, a fight which would take place nowhere near 160 pounds, never mind 168.

So, what’s really going on here? Some people are saying Canelo is trying to avoid Jermell Charlo, which would make sense if the WBC wasn’t more than willing to make “GGG” fight Charlo and give Canelo an easier matchup. Some people are saying that Alvarez’s weight has ballooned without his PEDs, and a move to 168 was inevitable without them. Either way, the next time we see Canelo Alvarez will be at 168 lbs. against Rocky Fielding, a decent opponent whose only loss was a first-round destruction at the hands of Liam Smith. We can all look forward to an undeserved Canelo decision.

Billy Joe Saunders’ Fight Cancelled after Positive PED Test

After Billy Joe Saunders tested positive for PED’s in a VADA test he voluntarily signed up for, the Massachusetts Boxing Commission denied him a boxing license, which led Saunders to both vacate his WBO title and to tell the commissioners of the famously LGBTQ-friendly state “You can suck my prick.” Saunders is threatening to sue the Massachusetts Commission over the cancellation, claiming the substance he tested positive for was from a nasal spray, and is allowed out of competition under the contract he signed.

In his place, Demetrius Andrade will now face Namibia’s Walter Kautondokwa, an undefeated fighter who has stopped 16 of 17 opponents but has never fought outside of Africa.

Manny Pacquiao Signs with Al Haymon, To Fight Broner?

After an ugly public falling out between Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions, the soon to be 40-year-old Filipino star has signed with Al Haymon Promotions. With Floyd Mayweather still teasing a warmup fight in Tokyo before their planned rematch, it will be interesting to see who Haymon matches Pacquiao up with next. Haymon’s PBC currently has guys like Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr. and Andre Berto, however internet rumors have Pacquiao scheduled to fight Adrien “About Billions” Broner sometime in January.

Compubox Introduces “Computrack” System

Compubox, the punch tracking system that is cited in 100% of boxing Twitter’s “robbery” arguments is adding a “Computrack” system, to be debuted on the streaming service DAZN. Computrack will track fighter’s movements and distances from each other, so that at the end of a fight you will be able to see how the fighter’s performed when the gap was closed, or when the taller boxer was able to maintain a distance and box from the outside. It will be interesting to put hard numbers behind boxing’s folk wisdom about short fighters getting inside of longer fighters, or to calculate how much moving boxers accused of “running” actually do.

The Boxing World Reacts to the Khabib-Conor Brawl

Various fighters from the boxing world were vocal about their opinions of the Conor Mcgregor-Khabib Nurgamedov brawl, with vastly differing opinions. Manny Pacquiao was not a fan, telling the Manila Times “I think it shouldn’t have happened since the fight was over and they’re just waiting for the decision. Khabib is wrong for attacking McGregor’s camp. I think a suspension or fine is in order.” Floyd Mayweather echoed that sentiment calling what Khabib did “very unprofessional” but seemed more concerned about how much Nurgamedov should be getting fined. Mayweather gave a lengthy speech about how much money his team was fined for their brawl against Zab Judah, and argued Khabib should be fined far more. He doesn’t call himself Floyd “Integrity” Mayweather, folks.

Terence Crawford on the other hand, loved the wild brawl and told ESPN’s “First Take” “Oh man I loved it, I actually tweeted after that fight, and I was asking everybody why they’re mad at him. When a guy talks as much as Conor was talking about him and actually threw something at the guy’s bus and hurt [people], of course it’s going to be personal. They should’ve expected that. I was laughing. It was crazy to me because it was just like ‘Whoa, I ain’t ever seen nothing like that.’” Boxing has had a ton of stuff like that, so I’m not sure why Crawford’s never seen anything like it.

Whyte-Chisora 2 Likely, Despite Luis Ortiz Talk

While the beginning of the week saw rumors that Luis Ortiz would be facing Dillian Whyte next, it appears those were more of a promotional leverage ploy, and that on Dec. 22 Whyte will be facing Dereck Chisora in a rematch of their 2016 fight, which Whyte won by split decision. The fight was good enough that people will be happy to see the rematch, even if it means Luis Ortiz has to try and find another opponent.