By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) is already back in the gym training for his next fight on July 26th against an opponent still to be determined. Golden Boy Promotions hasn’t picked out Canelo’s next opponent will be, but you can probably eliminate WBA junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara, because Canelo already told him “you have to wait.” That’s code for ‘I’m not interested in fighting you, and I probably never will be.’
Canelo defeated Alfredo Angulo on March 8th in beating him by a 10th round TKO in a fight that has some people wondering what happened to Angulo’s power. He went from being a big puncher to a fighter who looked weak even for featherweight standards. Angulo’s sudden loss of power in that fight combined with the controversy of last weekend’s fights has some fans wondering what’s going on.
If Canelo’s not interested in fighting Lara, then Golden Boy is going to need to find someone that will at least have the boxing public’s respect. You can’t pull in another Angulo type of fighter and expect fans to be interested in paying to see Canelo fight on pay-per-view on June 26th. That just doesn’t make sense.
It was thought that Canelo would look to pick up a paper title by facing IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina next so that he could get an easy strap that would validate him in the eyes of the casual fans, but with Molina’s recent legal problems it’s unclear if Golden Boy will go that route. I think ultimately Molina will be Canelo’s next opponent, but it’s not going to be much of a fight. Paying to see Canelo fight Molina is probably not high on everyone’s list in how they want to spend $70.
There’s really not much to choose from in the junior middleweight division for Canelo to fight besides Floyd Mayweather Jr., Lara, Anthony Mundine and Miguel Cotto. Canelo already got beaten by Mayweather, but it’s thought that Canelo will wind fighting Mayweather again next year due to the high interested in their fight last September. Cotto’s fighting Sergio Martinez at 160, but he’s a possibility for Canelo in late 2014 or definitely in 2015.
With Canelo rehydrating to the mid-170s, he really needs to move up in weight to the middleweight division so that he can challenge fighters his own size like Gennady Golovkin, Sergio Martinez, Peter Quillin, Daniel Geale, and Felix Sturm. But obviously, Canelo is staying at 154 due to the chance to fight Mayweather again and likely to fight some more of the welterweights. Canelo has done really well in fighting welterweights while holding down the 154 lb titles, and you can’t argue with his success. Until Mayweather finally beat him, Canelo had been perfect in beating welterweights while fighting in the 154 lb division. But Canelo is going to need work harder on his diet because he missed the 154 lb weight for the junior middleweight division in his fight against Angulo, and that’s a sign that the 23=year-old Canelo is starting to struggle making weight.
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