Makabu: I will KO Canelo.

The problem I have with this is that the WBC hasn't made it clear that their new CW limit is officially 190 lbs yet, so this is only going to fuel speculation that Canelo and his team are behind the scenes trying pushing this to be at 190 lbs. Which in a way wouldn't be unreasonable since for over a year we've know that the WBC was planning on changing its CW limit to 190 lbs and since Makabu is a small CW and has no problem fighting at 190 lbs. But since then we've heard nothing about it from Sulaiman and Makabu hasn't defended his belt for nearly a year. The last thing Canelo needs at this point in his career is more weight controversy or him being accused of trying to gain advantages or not fighting at the full limit. This is becoming a sticky situation that is likely going to create controversy no matter what ends up happening.

Lets say Sulaiman doesn't make any announcement about the limit officially changing to 190 lbs and then the fight gets made official. Then what if it starts to leak out that they agreed to fight at 190 lbs, well then fans are going to start criticizing the fight because it's not at the normal 200 lbs and that 190 is the new Caneloweight and all that. All this could easily be avoided if Sulaiman just made it clear that the limit is in fact changing to 190 lbs. We know for a fact that the WBC was planning on changing the limit to 190 lbs but that won't matter to Canelo's detractors. They voted on it apparently. If you give them an inch they'll take a mile and find some way to spin everything to discredit Canelo. That's why Sulaiman really needs to step up here and make it crystal clear what the limit is.

At this point even if the Sulaiman announces that their new CW limit is in fact changing to 190 lbs officially, it'll still create some controversy because most people probably don't even realize that they announced that it would be changing last year. Further, as I found out last night, some boxing fans these days are so clueless that they don't even realize that the Cruiserweight limit was originally 190 lbs to begin with and only increased to 200 lbs in the 2000s lmao. With all this confusion over the WBC's CW limit and the possibility of this happening at 190 lbs, this is setting the stage for Canelo to be once again discredited if he wins, as then his detractors will say he drained Makabu down to 190s as the A-side and only won the CW title at a catchweight of 190.

So what do you make of all this? Do you have any clue what will happen here? Do you think the WBC will in fact announce that the CW limit is in fact going to be 190 lbs for now on? If they don't announce that then I think this needs to be at 200 lbs so there's no controversy. At the same time, Makabu as a small CW who said last year that he has no problem making 190 if the limit is changing to that. But that won't matter to the public. The public just doesn't want to see any controversy over the weight which at this point seems impossible given the situaton. Unless Sulaiman announces that 190 lbs is the official limit, then anything under 200 lbs will be seen as a catchweight (and rightly so) and would be a means to discredit Canelo if he is to emerge victorious. So my thing is, like everyone else, I don't want to see a catchweight, it should obviously be at the full limit, but at the same time I have no problem with it being at 190 lbs if that's in fact the new weight limit since we've known about this for a while now and that was the traditional classic weight limit for Cruiserweight.

 

190lbs isn’t officially the new limit yet, but I can assure you that it will be very shortly.

 

Indeed, if Suliaman does not enforce that 190lb is the new cruiserweight (i.e. the WBC needs to stop sanctioning 200 lb fights as cruiserweight ranking fights and not allow its silver / minor / regional belts to be defended at 200 lb) it will rightly be seen as a catchweight.

 

Well I've just looked on the WBC site and it is still showing 200 lbs. Also this change was reported over a year ago but I suspent it will be changed before the fight. So people (shadow111/isal) just repeating the same thing does not make it so.

 

I looked into the WBC International Cruiserweight Title. Apparently, Evgeny Tishchenko won this vacant International Cruiserweight Title in September by beating Dmitry Kudryashov as listed on Boxrec, but in this article about the weigh-in :

https://ringside24.com/en/46875-tishchenko-and-kudryashov-passed-the-weigh-in

it says that they were fighting for the WBC International Heavyweight Title with weigh-in weights that were just below 200 lbs.

According to boxrec, Makabu's younger brother Martin Bakole won the vacant WBC International Heavyweight Title last December, but then in his most recent fight in September boxrec does not list that title as being on the line. So that makes me wonder if that title was vacated after Bakole won it last December and then put on the line for those cruiserweights who are now too big to make Cruiserweight any more due the weight limit change.

Olanrewaju Durodola is fighting Richard Riakporhe on Saturday for the vacant WBC Silver Cruiserweight Title. I guess we'll find out tomorrow what the weight limit will be. We should get our answer if we find the weigh-in weights for that one.

 

This article :

https://www.boxing247.com/boxing-ne...-canelos-chances-against-ilunga-makabu/205926

states that Durodola - Riakporhe will be at 200 lbs.

I'm not sure if we can expect the WBC to have its minor Cruiserweight belts being fought at the 190 lbs at this point. I'd imagine this could be a transition over time. Oddly most news reports who have reported on Canelo vs Makabu are reporting it as if the WBC has already lowered its weight limit to 190 lbs.

For example :

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...unga-makabu-cruiserweight-fight-b1959386.html

The move will see Canelo compete at 190 pounds, with the WBC lowering the 200-pound limit after bringing in the bridgerweight division, with its upper limit set at 224 pounds between cruiserweight and heavyweight.

The news came as a source of frustration for Lawrence Okolie, with the Briton holding the WBO cruiserweight world title and sensing one opportunity to unify slip away: “That’s another belt I can’t unify now. Madly enough I think he will actually win and go back down in weight. So I can go back to being a fan. Don’t blame me when you see me box [a] YouTuber next.”

http://shorturl.at/hsJOP

The cruiserweight limit was 200 pounds, but it has recently been reduced to 190 pounds.

So the media seems to be under the impression that the weight class has already been reduced, but to your point @KiwiMan , that doesn't seem to be the case as of yet. It certainly hasn't been updated on their website or apparently for any of their minor Cruiserweight titles.

The article below reports the news as though Bridgerweight starts at 190 despite the WBC's own press release at the convention indicating that it starts at 200 lb.

https://www.sportbible.com/boxing/c...two-weight-divisions-for-world-title-20211117

The WBC has a Bridgerweight weight division, between cruiser and heavyweight, which starts at 190 lbs and goes up to 224 lbs.

https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/canel...-fight-ilunga-junior-makabu/story?id=81216745

The cruiserweight limit is 200 pounds, but the WBC recently introduced an 18th weight class -- bridgerweight -- with a limit of 224 pounds. In a corresponding move, the Mexico-based organization is reducing the cruiserweight limit to 190 pounds, the same weight when the division was introduced in 1979, before it was increased by 10 pounds in 2004.

 

But the WBC recognized Tishchenko vs Kudryashov for the International Cruiserweight title: https://wbcboxing.com/en/cruiserweight/ (and basically every other outlet). The ringside article you posted is just incorrect about which title was on the line in Tishchenko vs Kudryashov.

Bakole is still the WBC International Heavyweight Title champion, the title simply wasn't on the line for his can-crushing of Osumanu. Either Bakole didn't want to pay the sanctioning fee to make a defense, or the WBC refused to sanction such a mismatch for their WBC International Heavyweight Title.

Many news outlets are reporting that Riakporhe vs Durorola is 200 lb. I doubt those fighters could make 190 lb anyway - Riakporhe says he walks at 100kg = 220 lb. So again, to be very clear, the WBC has thus far not insisted on 190 lb for its cruiserweight ranking fights & titles.

 

Yes, in short, the WBC have made a mess of moving cruiser to 190 lb. Because they don't want to lose sanctioning fees for 200 lb fights, they've allowed their cruiser belts to be defended at 200 lb. Maybe (hopefully - orgs need to be consistent) from Canelo onwards they will insist on 190 lb, but if they don't do so and give up on 190 lb shortly thereafter, it will definitely look bad for all involved.

Like you said, the WBC's own press release said bridger started at 200 lb, so for now the situation is that: cruiser remains at 200 lb and the WBC's plan to go to 190 lb has not yet been implemented.

P.S. Places like the Independent / ABC News, don't have actual boxing experts and don't really have a clue on what's happening.

 

They haven't officially made the change yet, that much is apparent, but apparently it's been voted on and the media is reporting that Canelo Makabu will be happening at 190 lbs due to the new weight limit, not as some kind of catchweight agreement. My point was that regardless, some would paint it as catchweight regardless of what the WBC says or does if it was fought at 190 lbs. But if Canelo and his team were under the impression that 190 lbs is the new weight limit, then you can't really call it a catchweight or an attempt by Canelo to drain Makabu as is being tossed around by many.

As to your statement that all the other WBC Cruiserweight minor titles couldn't be defended at 200 lbs anymore, or else it should be considered at catchweight at 190, for all we know, the WBC could decide to make the limit 190 lbs for the World Title first, and deley or transition the minor titles from being at 190 lbs for a period of time. My point was that I just think it's important for Sulaiman to make clear what the plan is so that fans don't spend the next 6 months accusing Canelo of trying to drain him Makabu or fight him at a catchweight when the WBC has made it very clear for over a year that 190 lbs will be the new weight limit.

 

On the one hand you could say they've made a mess of it, but at the same time, it's not an easy thing to pull off now is it. I'm just looking for Sulaiman to provide some kind of clarity on how he plans on implementing this and if 190 lb will officially be the weight class in the near future, and how that could affect the minor titles, whether those will stay at 200 lbs or whatver the case may be. Because from the looks of it, the fighters who hold the minor titles appear to be much bigger than Makabu and probably couldn't make 190 while Makabu has made it clear that he can. If Sulaiman doesn't say anything about it and months go by without knowing what the plan is and we go into Canelo Makabu being fought at 190 with fans arguing over if it's a catchweight or the actual limit that could be a disaster lol. Mauricio needs to show some leadership here and explain what the plan is.

 

Exactly. The WBC needs to be transparent, but that's something the orgs are not particularly good at.

 

Fortunately for Canelo, Makabu is not a remotely elite boxer or puncher. He is the definition of ordinary. I see no reason why Canelo wouldn't win this fight. It is only risky on paper. Nobody considers Makabu a genuine "champion" at that weight. He is arguably not even one of the top ten best Cruisers now.

 

Not in the top ten? He's ranked #2 by the Ring and #3 in the Transnational Rankings.

 

I understand he is ranked. But, he is not a good fighter. But, since the top fighters rarely fight each other, we have no solid idea who the ten best cruiserweights really are.