By Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) says he’s considering a bout on September 14th against one of the following opponents: Sergio Martinez, Alfredo Angulo or Miguel Cotto. According to Steve Kim, Canelo would have to move to 160 if he plans on fighting Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KO’s), at least that’s what Martinez’s adviser Sampson Lewkowicz is saying.
Would Canelo be interested in moving up six pounds to face someone slightly bigger than him in Sergio Martinez or would Canelo flat out say no, that he prefers to fight guys in his own weight class or smaller? It’s unknown, but what is known is that Canelo has fought an awful lot of fighters in the division below him since he picked up the WBC junior middleweight title against welterweight Matthew Hatton in 2011.
In fairness to Canelo, he isn’t the one making his fights; Golden Boy Promotions are the ones that set up his fights, but Canelo blesses them by saying yes or no. He’s been okay with fighting welterweights, and he’s just now stepping it up against WBA junior middleweight champion Ausin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s) in a fight next month on April 20th.
It may prove to be really hard to put a fight together between Canelo and Sergio even if Canelo is willing to move up to 160, mainly because Sergio recently signed a new three-fight contract with HBO that will lock him down for at least a year with that network.
Canelo now fights for Showtime, so it’s going to be next to impossible to match the two of them up against each other unless there can be some kind of an arrangement between the networks to make this fight happen. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.
I wouldn’t like Canelo’s chances against a fighter with the kind of speed and power that Martinez possesses. He’s too quick, too strong and far too talented for a flat-footed fighter like Canelo. It might end up being a fight very similar to Martinez’s recent bout against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., only that Canelo would be a much smaller version of Chavez Jr. Canelo seems to do better against smaller fighters, and Martinez would be a little too big for Canelo to handle the way he’s been handing welterweights and light welterweights.
Martinez faces unbeaten Martin Murray (25-0-1, 11 KO’s) next month on April 27th at the Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield, Buenos Aires, Distrito Federal, Argentina. Murray is a pretty tough fighter, and it’s going to be interesting to see how Martinez copes with his skills, youth and the limited power that he has.
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