Canelo may be replaced by Santa Cruz or Angulo on May 4th card

By Boxing News - 02/27/2013 - Comments

angulo453By Allan Fox: The co-main event on the May 4th fightcard took a hit today with the news that WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez pulling out of the card after failing to get an agreement from WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. to fight him on September 14th.

In place of Canelo in the main event, Golden Boy is reportedly thinking of adding either super bantamweight Leo Santa Cruz (23-0-1, 13 KO’s) or junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo (22-2, 18 KO’s). Both are Mexican, and it would interest the Mexican fans celebrating the Cinco de Mayo holiday during the weekend of the Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero pay-per-view fight card.

Whether one of them can attract fans to purchase the card is different matter entirely. Neither is a big draw, and it’s difficult to imagine boxing fans wanting to purchase the card if they see Santa Cruz or Angulo fighting.

As for as WBC lightweight champion Adrien Broner fighting on the card, it may not be possible because he currently fights for HBO, and Golden Boy would have to get permission from HBO to use Broner for the Showtime/CBS broadcast. If they can get Broner then it would be a natural to place him in the co-main event position if they can find a suitable opponent for him to fight like Raymundo Beltran. It’s still likely that Broner won’t fight on the card.

Angulo hasn’t done much since getting beaten by James Kirkland in November 2011. Angulo has won his last two fights against Raul Casarez and Jorge Silva, but he’s not faced anyone world class. He’s not someone that you automatically think of when you’re picturing a top fighter for the Mayweather-Guerrero co-main event. If Golden Boy can’t find someone better than this for their co-main even then they’re going to be hurting when it comes to the PPV number numbers.

Santa Cruz is a good fighter, but he’s moving up in weight to super bantamweight and unless they can get him a title shot for May 4th, it’s difficult to get excited about seeing him fighting in the co-main event in a non-title fight.



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