Canelo Alvarez sheds clothes to make weight for Liam Smith title fight

Canelo Alvarez and his Saturday opponent, Liam Smith, each weighed in at the junior-middleweight limit 154 pounds Friday.

Alvarez needed to shed all his clothing to make weight, stepping on the scale with a towel placed in front of him.

Smith (23-0-1, 13 knockouts) will defend his World Boxing Organization belt against Mexico’s Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) at AT&T Stadium outside Dallas on Saturday night on HBO pay-per-view.

Alvarez, fighting at 154 pounds for the first time since he weighed 152 for his September 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., walked from the scale and guzzled from a water bottle.

Smith, making his third title defense in his first bout outside England, said he recalls Alvarez looking “dead on his feet” before fighting Mayweather, but didn’t see troubling signs at Friday’s weigh-in.

Alvarez’s promoter, former 10-time world champion Oscar De La Hoya, said he, too, needed to undress entirely for his 1999 welterweight showdown against Felix Trinidad Jr. – a fight De La Hoya lost by disputed majority decision.

“I still felt good in that fight,” De La Hoya said. “It happens.”

Smith said he intends to survive an early Alvarez attack in the bout and try to out-box the favored former two-division champion down the stretch.

“If he [pursues an early knockout], it’s a massive mistake,” Smith said. “My confidence is not going to bed. I’m going to win this fight.”

Alvarez praised Smith as “a very good fighter, but that’s what we’ve planned for — to give the fans a beautiful victory.”

Ticket sales were around 40,000 Friday, and Alvarez said it’s especially meaningful to him to fight on Mexican Independence Day weekend in Texas.

“To my fans, I’m very grateful for the love and support they always give me,” Alvarez said. “I’m taking the victory.”

Middleweights Willie Monroe and Gabriel Rosado also made weight for their co-main event bout, while South El Monte’s Joseph Diaz and Blythe’s Andrew Cancino met the featherweight limit and De La Hoya’s cousin, Diego De La Hoya (15-0), met the super-bantamweight limit along with his opponent, Luis Orlando Del Valle.