By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya is currently working on Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s December 6th fight, and trying to get a deal done between one of the three opponents – Joshua Clottey, James Kirkland and Demetrius Andrade – that they’ve selected for him to fight.
Canelo, 24, will make the call for which one that he wants to fight. De La Hoya just wants to make the best financial deal for him. He’s looking at staging the fight at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
That’s where Canelo wants to fight, because he still remembers the 40,000 fans that showed up to watch him battle former WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout last year in April. Canelo won the fight by fairly wide scores, but it looked to be more of a draw or a victory for Trout. The fans were screaming at every punch Canelo threw, even the ones that missed by a mile.
Canelo’s fight could wind up on HBO this time. He no longer has a contract with Showtime, and that means that we could see him fighting with HBO if they can make a deal. De La Hoya recently patched things up with HBO with Golden Boy fighter IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins fighting on HBO next November against WBO champion Sergey Kovalev.
“I am piecing things together for Canelo, connecting the dots, but he’s going to fight December 6. That’s the definite date,” De La Hoya told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “We’re pushing for San Antonio. Canelo really loves fighting at the Alamodome. He had a wonderful experience there.”
Canelo is the one who will ultimately decide on who he wants to fight of the three. Clottey and Kirkland were at one time big names, but due to inactivity they’ve been largely forgotten by a lot of boxing fans. It’s been so many years since Clottey and Kirkland have been relevant that it’s almost like Canelo fighting old timers if he were to fight either of them.
Clottey is about to turn 37, and Kirkland, while still young at 30, is someone that the newer boxing fans aren’t familiar with. It’s mainly the older fans that know about Kirkland.
Andrade would have to be considered the toughest fight of the bunch for Canelo, because he’s taller than him, faster, and with a longer reach.
Andrade also holds the WBO junior middleweight title, and that ideally should make him the better opponent of the three. But if the idea is to find someone soft for Canelo to beat then you have to look at Clottey or Kirkland because they’re definitely beatable.
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