Canelo doubts Mayweather or Cotto will fight him on September 14th

By Boxing News - 05/11/2013 - Comments

canelo400By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) says he only has two weeks to decide on who’s going to be his next opponent on September 14th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Canelo, 22, doesn’t think Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Miguel Cotto will choose to fight him next. He also recognizes that a fight against WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez isn’t possible after Martinez broke his left hand and injured his knee in his win over Martin Murray last April.

Canelo said to Univision “There are not many options. One that we wanted was Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez, but he hurt his left hand in his last fight. Miguel Cotto is a possibility, but he wants to fight in November or December. Then it’s complicated. We want to see what is out there in, and in two weeks or so and I think we’ll know who we’re going against.”

Cotto is reportedly interested in facing Canelo next, saying to ESPN Deportes “We have to sit down and talk and negotiate, and if we agree, then why not?”

If Mayweather or Cotto aren’t selected for Canelo’s next fight then it’ll likely be someone like Alfredo Angulo or maybe one of the welterweights like Marcos Maidana. I can’t see one of the bigger welterweights like Keith Thurman being selected because he’s a pretty dangerous fighter and Golden Boy Promotions would be running a risk of Canelo getting beaten because Thurman is one of those fighters that fights for the full three minutes of every round, not just one minute like Canelo.

The fight wouldn’t take place in Texas, and I seriously doubt the WBC will have their semi open scoring again after the backlash against it from Canelo’s close and controversial 12 round decision over former WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout last month in San Antonio, Texas.

Of course, anything is possible. The World Boxing Council may choose to ram it down the throats of fans. In which case, I feel for Thurman because he could find himself in a situation where he’s looking for a knockout as early as the 4th round when the first set of scores are announced. I don’t see it affecting him as badly as it did Trout, though, because Thurman’s game is centered on him knocking his opponents out.



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