Alvarez, Charlo make weight for super middleweight title showdown

Las Vegas (AFP): Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Jermell Charlo both weighed in at 167.4 pounds on Friday ahead of their duel for Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight world titles.

Charlo, himself the undisputed junior middleweight world champion, will be at his heaviest fighting weight ever as he steps up to the 168-pound (76.2 kg) division for the first time aiming to grab Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC AND WBO belts.

Both fighters looked relaxed and faced off without incident on the outdoor stage erected near the T-Mobile Arena, where a throng of fans jockeyed to capture images on their cellphones to the strains of mariachi music.

The ritual step on the scales, followed by a stare-down, followed an official weigh-in behind closed doors earlier Friday, under the eyes of Nevada State Athletic Commission officials.

“It’s time to fight,” Charlo said, adding that he didn’t care that Alvarez had been the focus in the build-up to the bout. “It don’t matter how they hype him up,” Charlo said. “They got it popping in here. I live it, I enjoy it. I do this for us, baby.”

Charlo, who boasts a record of 35-1-1 with 19 knockouts, will start as a clear underdog, but the 33-year-old from Louisiana has the speed and punching ability to cause problems for Alvarez — who suffered a lopsided loss to Dmitri Bivol in a failed title bid at light heavyweight last year before underwhelming victories over Gennady Golovkin and John Ryder in his last two fights.

Charlo’s weight is about 12 pounds more than he’s weight for any fight in his pro career. But he has insisted that he’d have no trouble “filling out for the super middleweight clash, saying pundits predicting he was too small to challenge in the division “don’t know my real size.”

Alvarez, 59-2-2 with 39 knockouts, has won world titles in four divisions and said he didn’t expect Charlo to have any trouble stepping up.

“The size factor is no matter here,” he said. “I did that before and I felt good. So it’s gonna be a great fight and I’m ready for everything.

“It’s gonna be amazing,” added Alvarez, who is 7-0 with four knockouts in fights contested at 168 pounds.