Who should Canelo fight next?

By Boxing News - 04/01/2014 - Comments

canelo1360By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KO’s) was able to get a victory last month in halting the hand-picked Alfredo Angulo (22-4, 18 KO’s) by a 10th round in a fight that did little to erase the memory of Canelo’s one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in September. The reason why the defeat didn’t do anything to make boxing fans forget about how lost Canelo looked against Mayweather was because of how poor Angulo looked.

It’s going to take someone a lot better than Angulo for fans to start believing in the flat-footed Canelo, and it’s unlikely that Golden Boy Promotions are going to risk putting him in with someone that is actually good like Erislandy Lara. Canelo, #2 WBA, #2 WBC, #12 IBF, already closed the door on a fight against Lara by telling him that he has to wait his turn. In other words, Lara isn’t going to get a chance to clown Canelo the way that Mayweather did.

The likely next opponent for Canelo will come from this group of fighters:

Carlos Molina – this will be the most likely next opponent for Canelo. Molina has the IBF 154lb title, and if Canelo beats him it may help validate him in the eyes of a lot of casual boxing fans, even though Molina isn’t considered to be in the same class as guys like Lara, Demetrius Andrade and Martirosyan in the eyes of a lot of fans.

Anthony Mundine – This would be an excellent opponent for Canelo. However, Mundine, 38, has too much size, power and experience to be seriously considered by Golden Boy Promotions as an opponent for Canelo. I can’t see them letting him get the fight.

Sergey Rabchenko – Golden Boy won’t likely use Rabchenko as an opponent for Canelo because he’s not well known enough. He’s obviously a better opponent than what Canelo fought in his last fight, but the fact that he’s not well known will keep him from getting selected for Canelo’s next fight.

Vanes Martirosyan – Vanes is too dangerous and too big to get selected for Canelo. It would be a toss-up fight, which is why Vanes won’t get selected for the red-haired Canelo.

The only real option for Canelo is the light hitting Molina, and that’s because he has the IBF title and he doesn’t have much in the way of power or hand speed to make Canelo look bad. The fighters that definitely won’t get the fight against Canelo are Lara, Martirosyan, and Rabchenko. Mundine has a very, very slight chance.



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