Larry Merchant, Hall of Famer and former HBO Boxing broadcaster, believes Canelo Alvarez will have zero trouble luring top middleweights to move up in weight.

This past Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Canelo jumped up by two weight classes to challenge Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight title.

Canelo captured the belt with an eleventh round knockout.

Merchant doubts Canelo will be able to return to middleweight in a safe manner.

Canelo himself admits that it will be very difficult to get back down to 160.

Merchant and most observers expect the Mexican superstar to go down to super middleweight - and then lure many of the top names at 160 to face him at 168-pounds.

"I think his future or near future will be at 168. I think it's going to be hard for him to make 160 without weakening himself," Merchant told BoxingScene.com.

"I do think that there are a number of 160-pounders who would like to fight him. And if Canelo says - 'if you want to fight me you have to come up to 168 and I'll give you $12 million' - boy they will be right there."

There is the idea that Canelo could have a trilogy fight with Gennady Golovkin. While they both hold respective world titles at middleweight - Merchant would expect that third meeting to take place at 168-pounds.

"I have no serious interest in it. I think we saw 24 rounds of what they have against each other. But I do think that if it were to happen again it would have to be at a higher weight, and Golovkin is not getting any younger either," Merchant said.