WBC Institutes Dangerously Draconian Rehydration Limits

                  WBC El Gordo Presidente For Life

Fat Sulaimán Jr pulls an assassination drive by shackling fighters with the most draconian weighin rules ever devised in boxing history. Larded Couch Potato Slugs devising weight rules for hardened combat athletes, now wrap your sensibilities around that new reality.

Some 30 years ago the boxing medical community became belatedly alarmed when they finally figured out fighters did not have time to properly rehydrate for same day weighins on the date of the fight, a big DUH moment for these low browed suits populating boxing.

Old Weight scale measurements

Thus with legal liabilities growing in the background, boxing moved to day before weighins that resulted in healthier fighters entering the ring. They also created the last of the “Junior” divisions that yields the current construct of 17 weight divisions from the less than 105 lb minimumweight to the open class 200 lb+ heavyweights. Subsequently boxing entered into a golden age of fighting legends with lucrative PPV deals raining down like manna from heaven, but alas, no such largess can last without ever more suits dipping into the honeypot that soon became so despoiled and soiled that the public fled for more honorable sports with more understandable rules and transparent scoring.

Canelo forced down to 152 lbs turning blue

In addition to the 152 lb catchweight above, the WBC also sanctioned the 165lb rehydration limit to further handicap the bigger Canelo. In contrast, Floyd Tue 50-0 Mayweather has had a free reign with the WBC and USADA drug cartel. These folks are utterly shameless in the fashion they construct the rules that they flagrantly flout.

The new rules require the fighters to bounce their weights around even more over short 30 day time spans with 5 total weighins, a recipe for disaster as any competent weight physician can testify, and how many bounces would that be for a Canelo with over 50 pro fights had they been in place? My math shows over 250 severe bounces in weight for an otherwise healthy specimen…only in boxing folks!!!

https://fightnews.com/wbc-announces-new-weight-management-program/37622

Mexico War England-Canelo Vs Rocky Fielding

Saul Alvarez makes a huge leap of faith and size to challenge the new WBA supermiddleweight champ, Rocky Fielding in their mutual Madison Square Garden debuts in New York this Saturday, December 15th.

 

Fielding’s fellow Brit, Callum Smith, is actually the super WBA supermiddle champ if we want to parse supers in this regrettable era of multiple titles even within one boxing organization. Smith’s belt was well won as the victor in the highly lauded WBSS tourney, so it remains to be seen if Canelo or Rocky will ever challenge Callum. For the 28 year old Canelo, it’s all about the money and pleasing DAZN bosses after his monumental $$$365 million, 5 year, 11 fight deal with that streaming platform adopted by British Promoter Eddie Hearn.

Alvarez’s deal is the richest athlete contract in sports history, eclipsing the 13-year, $325 million agreement that New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton signed in 2014 when he was with the Miami Marlins. That makes him the highest earner in the history of boxing at his age, heady stuff indeed considering  earnings of the 28 year old Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and Manny Pacquiao. In short:

“Canelo is the highest-paid athlete in the world. He’s extremely happy,” Oscar De La Hoya gushed after Alvarez signed the deal.

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/25003974/canelo-alvarez-signs-5-year-11-fight-deal-worth-365-million-dazn

Yeah, I guess so!

The staged face off pose favoring the size of Fielding is from the top of the Empire State Building upon their announcement of the fight. Canelo was fresh off his win over Gennedy Golovkin and not far removed from that fight weight of 180 lbs. The 6-4 Fielding, currently listed in boxrec as 6-1, would’ve been at least 2 months out of training probably at the 210-220 mark, meaning he’s been cutting about 50lbs just to make the division limit, so needless to say he dwarfs any previous Canelo opponents. Whether by Canelo contract demands or WBA oversight, sad to say there is a next morning rehydration limit of 10lbs the fighters have to weigh before full rehydration can begin, a new fad in boxing. I abhor any rehydration limit on fighters, many of whom have been made deathly ill by trying to squeeze in as much as 20lbs under their fighting weights just to make a division weight limit, 168 lbs in this case, however a complete staged 36 hour slice of time is much better than the 8 or so hours fighters had in the same day eras.

To win a fight like this, Canelo needs a new low crouch bob and weave style with a quick step inside range and to sharpen up his izquierda al hígado liver shots that will be in his biggest power zone. I predict a good, well waged fight of give and take after a cautious first few rounds. I obviously favor Canelo, but Rocky represents a mighty mountain he has never been tasked to climb, so this ring journey sure ain’t handed to him on a silver platter.