By Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) will be continuing with his trend of facing less than dangerous opposition when he takes on 140 pounder Josesito Lopez (30-4, 18 KO’s) on September 15th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Alvarez, 22, says he wants to take on the big names in boxing like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto after he gets through with light welterweight Lopez. Let’s hope so.
It’s a pity that Alvarez’s promoters at Golden Boy has decided to match him up with a light welterweight rather than a top junior middleweight from his own division like Erislandy Lara, because that should at least be a pre-requisite for being a champion that you fight a contender from your own division rather than one from two divisions below your own.
From Golden Boy’s standpoint they obviously don’t want to rush Alvarez into any dangerous fights that he might not be ready for, but he also is a champion so it’s a strange situation. On one hand you can understand why Golden Boy might not want to put Alvarez in with someone like Erislandy Lara, but on the other hand Alvarez is a champion. If he’s not ready to face the best fighters in the division then he should have vacated the title immediately after winning the vacant strap against welterweight Matthew Hatton.
Alvarez has beaten these guys since he picked up the WBC title last year: Ryan Rhodes, Kermit Cintron, Alfonso Gomez and Shane Mosley. Those are decent fringe level opponents, but not someone that you would consider worthy of fighting for a title belt. I know Mosley, 40, was ranked incredibly high by the WBC at #3 at the time that Alvarez fought him last May. The thing is Mosley hadn’t won a fight in three years when he was given this ranking. I guess the high ranking for Mosley kind of gave Alvarez cover for taking on a guy that hadn’t won a fight in so many years, but it was just sad none less to see that kind of thing going on.
I’m really hoping that the Lopez fight will be the last of the easy title defenses for Alvarez, because I’d like to see him fight someone good for a change and I’m not talking about seeing him fight Floyd Mayweather. I think Mayweather is great, but I’d prefer to see Alvarez in a situation where he actually has to earn the Mayweather fight by beating someone good from his own division like Lara to get to the Mayweather bout. Do I think that’s going to happen? No, not in this lifetime, not with Lara still fighting incredibly well. Golden Boy will likely match Alvarez up against someone like James Kirkland next, who recently lucked out in a fight against Carlos Molina.
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