It's most likely due to his age that he can cut so much weight. As you get older, the weight stays with you and it gets harder and harder to cut. He could be the poster boy for drastic weight cutting.
Yes he is clearly a Middleweight. He seems to have to work hard to weigh in at 155 and weighs in as heavy or heavier than alot of Middleweights come fight night. The only thing not Middleweight about him is his opposition which seems to be mainly fattened up Welterweights. Like a school bully.
With the rules in place him and many other boxers drain to get a size advantage fighting in a division well below their fighting weight. It is what it is.
Its true but most Boxers do it against opponents the same size as them fighting at the same weight and it pretty much evens itself out cuz they both do it. Canelo is doing it against Welterweights who are already smaller than him. He is gaining huge weight advantages over them.
I support stricter weight cutting regulations but as it stands the only weight that matters for categorization is what they weigh on the scale.
Alvarez is a 160 fighter, as long as he wants to fight, he should fight at middleweight, if he wants to fight at 155, then OK, but his opponents can weight 160 because it's the 160 division................
He hydrated back up to 172lbs against Trout I believe and that was a few years ago. We haven't been privy to his walk in the ring weight in recent fights but I suspect he's walking in the mid 170lbs range. So it's pretty clear he's a good sized middleweight, even maybe a big middleweight.
Definitely a middleweight, but using the lowest weight he can drain down to so he doesn't have to face other real middleweights.