{"id":25576,"date":"2025-08-16T05:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T09:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/boxing-who-would-benefit-from-moving-up-in-weight-canelo-and-more\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T05:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T09:35:21","slug":"boxing-who-would-benefit-from-moving-up-in-weight-canelo-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/boxing\/boxing-who-would-benefit-from-moving-up-in-weight-canelo-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Boxing: Who Would Benefit from Moving Up in Weight? Canelo and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boxers Who Could Move Up a Weight Class for Big Fights<\/h2>\n\nTerence Crawford dares to greatness by moving up two weight divisions to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo \u00c1lvarez on September 13 in Las Vegas. If he succeeds, Crawford could establish himself as one of the best boxers of this generation.\n\n\n

Who else in sports could benefit from moving up a category to face bigger challenges? Here we present seven boxers who could gain a lot by changing divisions to seek more lucrative opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canelo \u00c1lvarez<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent category: 168 pounds\n\nPossible new category: 175 pounds\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\nIf Canelo overcomes Crawford’s challenge, he wouldn’t have much left to do at 168 pounds, except for a fight against Hamzah Sheeraz, where the risk doesn’t outweigh the reward. He already dared to be great in 2022, when he tried to become a light heavyweight champion, losing to Dmitry Bivol. However, the light heavyweight division has become more interesting with the arrival of David Benavidez. A fight against Benavidez would be a great matchup between Mexican boxers and would silence many critics.\n\n\n

Jai Opetaia<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent category: 200 pounds\n\nPossible new category: Heavyweight\n\nOpetaia has dominated the cruiserweight competition. If the Australian boxer wants to make a splash, he could move up to heavyweight, as Oleksandr Usyk did, where opponents are more attractive. Fights with Daniel Dubois, Joseph Parker, and Andy Ruiz Jr. would be interesting, but what about a match with Usyk, the former undisputed cruiserweight champion and current undisputed heavyweight champion? That could be a fight Usyk would accept before retiring.\n\n\n

Teofimo L\u00f3pez<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent category: 140 pounds\n\nPossible new category: 147\/154 pounds\n\nL\u00f3pez is one of the best pound-for-pound boxers when he is focused. Moving up to 147 pounds could lead him to a fight with the winner of Brian Norman Jr. vs. Devin Haney. But, why stop at 147 pounds? L\u00f3pez could move up two weight classes to fight Jaron “Boots” Ennis. He called out Ennis after dominating Arnold Barboza Jr. in May, and with “Boots” moving to 154 pounds, L\u00f3pez could pursue that challenge.\n\n\n

Gervonta “Tank” Davis<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent category: 135 pounds\n\nPossible new category: 147 pounds\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n“Tank” is one of boxing’s biggest stars, but he has yet to face a renowned opponent. Moving up from 135 to 147 pounds makes a lot of sense, considering the names that would await him. Although a fight with the winner of Norman vs. Haney would be tempting, the real draw would be a showdown with the legendary Manny Pacquiao. A fight between these boxing legends would be a huge event.\n\n\n

Shakur Stevenson<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent Category: 135 pounds\n\nPossible new category: 140 pounds\n\nStevenson’s brilliance has made it difficult for him to get matchups with prominent names in his weight category. A move up to 140 pounds would open doors against Lopez, Richardson Hitchins, and Subriel Matias. Stevenson will need to move to get the recognition he deserves against some of the big names in boxing.\n\n\n

Junto Nakatani<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent category: 118 pounds\n\nPossible new category: 122 pounds\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\nThis move is the most likely to happen. Nakatani could move up to 122 pounds to challenge Naoya Inoue, in a battle between ESPN’s number 10 and number 2 pound-for-pound boxers, respectively. The two fighters have already verbally agreed to face each other in 2026.\n\n\n

Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez<\/h3>\n\n\nCurrent Category: 115 pounds\n\nPossible new category: 122 pounds\n\nRodriguez, 25 years old, is the number 5 boxer in the world in ESPN’s pound-for-pound ranking. If “Bam” were to move up from 115 to 122 pounds, he could face Inoue. With a combined record of 52-0 with 42 knockouts between them, it would be an action-packed fight that could be a candidate for Fight of the Year.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boxers Who Could Move Up a Weight Class for Big Fights Terence Crawford dares to greatness by moving up two weight divisions to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo \u00c1lvarez on September 13 in Las Vegas. If he succeeds, Crawford could establish himself as one of the best boxers of this generation. Who else in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[205,900,1375,3899],"class_list":{"0":"post-25576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-canelo-alvarez","10":"tag-fights","11":"tag-weight"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}