The Cinco de Mayo weekend has always been a massive time of year for Las Vegas and this year will be no different as Golden Boy Promotions announced that Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan will meet in the squared circle on May 7. Many were expecting Canelo to be seeing an easier fight with talks of him and Gennady Golovkin clashing later this year to unify the middleweight championships, but that's not the case.
Online shop Sportsbook had opened Canelo as the -300 favorite with Khan coming back at +240 for the bout after the announcement of the fight. But on the day of the fight Alvarez saw his line sitting at -500 at Sportsbook.
Canelo’s will enter Cinco de Mayo weekend with a 46-1-1 record, with his lone loss coming at the hands of Floyd Mayweather in 2013. Alvarez is coming off a dismantling of Miguel Cotto to entrench himself as one of the top two middleweights on the planet. Canelo excels at timing his punches, but his hands also pack a lot of power with 32 of his career wins coming via KO. If there is one knock against Canelo it is his lateral movement, which got heavily exploited against Mayweather.
Khan has been vocal about his desire to fight top tier talent and the Brit will get his wish in Canelo. Khan has won 31 of his 34 professional fights and will come into the bout on a five-fight winning streak. The current WBC Silver Welterweight titleholder is a linear, though aggressive, fighter who prefers to dominate exchanges with his hand speed. This bullish mentality has paid dividends for Khan, but it has also resulted in him getting knocked out early in a couple fights.
This fight will take place at middleweight for Canelo’s titles, as Khan will jump up two weight classes to look for the big fight he has desperately been craving.
- Canelo Alvarez -500
- Amir Khan +350
