Canelo Alvarez vs Rocky Fielding: Brit delivers shock prediction ahead of showdown
CANELO ALVAREZ could suffer a surprise knockout loss to Rocky Fielding on Saturday night, the Liverpudlian scrapper believes.
Alvarez is moving up to super middleweight for the first time in his career, with Fielding’s WBA regular title the dangling reward.
The Mexican is a huge favourite to win his debut at 168lb, given his stacked resume, but does concede a height and reach advantage to his opponent.
Fielding stands 6ft 1in tall and has three inches on Canelo’s reach, as well as a slim weight advantage.
Canelo’s ability to seamlessly bulk up for the fight has been impressive, although the fighter’s drug problems have cast doubt on his previous preparation.
I wouldn’t be here now, I wouldn’t be doing it [if I didn’t think I could win]
In April the box-office draw was issued a six-month ban after failing two drug tests earlier in the year.
The 28-year-old and his camp claim it was from contaminated meat from his homeland, but the backdated ban remained.
It still allowed him to rematch Gennady Golovkin in September, which the Mexican controversially won on a majority decision.
That secured him the WBC and WBA middleweight titles, but now the orthodox boxer is looking to emulate greats of the past such as Sugar Ray Leonard in becoming a world champion from welterweight to super middleweight.
Aware he is in the shadow of Canelo’s PPV allure, Fielding, 31, is plotting a massive upset.
When asked whether he can knock out the world star at Madison Square Garden, Fielding told Sky Sports: “Definitely.
“I wouldn’t be here now, I wouldn’t be doing it [if I didn’t think I could].
“It’s at my weight - I keep saying it. He wants to challenge at my weight.
“I’m fully focused on it. I know how much of a challenge and how great a fighter he is.
“But I’m going in there to see what I can do. I’m confident of doing the job.”