By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) says he’ll start training next month in January for his fight on May 2nd on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo against an opponent still to be determined.
Canelo’s opponent could be WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, but that remains to be seen whether that fight can be negotiated because of the difficulties in trying to work out a fight between to iron-willed fighters. Canelo might end up pricing himself out or turning Cotto away by asking for a venue that is not suitable for the 34-year-old Cotto.
After all, Canelo is only 24 and his biggest wins of his career against Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara were very close and controversial. A lot of boxing fans feel that Canelo lost to both Trout and Lara. The fact that Canelo doesn’t want to go back and clear up the controversy by fighting them again doesn’t help him any. It’s like flunking a class in school and still getting pushed ahead and instead of held back.
“Right now I’m on vacation. I had a foot problem. I am rehabilitating. In January I’ll start training for the fight in May,” Canelo said to diario.mx. “The strongest name we’ve spoken to is Miguel Cotto, but there are several options, so we’re waiting.”
It would be interesting to know who those three names are that are potential options for the red-haired Canelo. If he’s talking about dragging up a welterweight to fight him at junior middleweight then it won’t be surprising because Canelo has done that trick before.
Canelo rehydrates to over 170+ and ends up having a huge weight advantage against the lighter welterweights. What you likely won’t see is Canelo fighting an equally heavy middleweight weighing in the low 170s, even though that would be a better fight to prepare Canelo for a fight against Cotto than a fight against another welterweight.
Canelo probably won’t fight WBO junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade because he’s too big and too dangerous. That fight has zero chance of happening. Canelo also probably won’t give Trout or Lara rematches despite the controversy of his wins over both of those guys.
Canelo really doesn’t have any options at junior middleweight that will keep him from getting bumped off the May 2nd fight date by Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo’s only way of keeping his May 2nd date is to fight Cotto or Gennady Golovkin, and there’s no way he’ll take a fight against Golovkin. He’s definitely not an option for Canelo due to his power and skills. If Canelo can’t beat Lara without controversy then he’d have no business being in the same ring with a guy like Golovkin, because that guy would butcher Canelo.
Canelo is likely bluffing Cotto in order to get him to agree to whatever terms that Canelo is looking for. There are no good options for Canelo unless he can somehow get a fight against Manny Pacquiao for May 2nd, but that can’t happen because Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said that Mayweather and Pacquiao aren’t good names to fight on May 2nd. If Arum turned around and said yes to Pacquiao fighting on May 2nd against Canelo then that would make him look like a hypocrite in the eyes of some boxing fans.
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