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Former unified middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins believes Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez would go right through the light heavyweight division.
In less than a year, Canelo became the undisputed world champion at the super middleweight limit of 168-pounds.
He defeated Callum Smith for the WBC, WBA titles in December, stopped Billy Joe Saunders for the WBO title in May, and picked up the last piece of the puzzle, the IBF belt, this past weekend with a knockout of Caleb Plant at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Canelo is expected to fight again on a date in May, for Cinco De Mayo weekend.
The Mexican fighter has already discussed the possibility of returning to 175, where he captured a world title in 2019 – when he knocked out Sergey Kovalev for the WBO title. Canelo would eventually vacate the belt and dropped down to 168.
The current champions at 175 include WBC, IBF champion Artur Beterbiev, WBO champion Joe Smith, and WBA champion Dmitry Bivol.
Hopkins would back him against any of the beltholders at light heavyweight.
He feels Canelo can already compete in the cruiserweight division, which has a weight cap of 200-pounds – 32 more than Canelo’s current fighting weight.
“Canelo can already compete up to cruiserweight. But the light heavyweight division, I think he sweeps that,” Hopkins told Fighthype.com.
“He’s willing to put the work in. He’s willing to go through anything that has to go through to be great. And I think that he’s in a position of the mentality of a fighter and just want to do great things from here on out.”
Canelo is a four division world champion with title wins at junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.