By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) is confident that his hand will be raised on May 9th at the end of his fight against American James Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs) in their fight at the Minute Maid Stadium in Houston, Texas. The fight will take place at a catch-weight of 155 pounds.
With boxing fans excited about the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs. Manny Pacquiao fight, few fans are talking about Canelo’s fight against the ring rusty Kirkland.
Part of the reason for that is because Kirkland hasn’t fought since 2013, and he’s been largely forgotten about by a lot of fans. Further, the younger boxing fans have never heard of Kirkland, because it’s been so long since he was really relevant at 154. His inactivity has caused him to be left behind by a lot of fans.
“I invite all my fans to witness a high quality event on May 9 at Minute Maid Park, and confirm to them that they won’t be disappointed,” Canelo said via Panamerica.com. “I will face a proven and very dangerous rival who comes to fight, but no doubt I will leave that night with the victory,” said Alvarez.
It’s true that Canelo will likely leave with the victory against Kirkland, but then again he’s fighting someone that he should be able to beat.
When you pick a guy who hasn’t fought in two years, and who is 50 pounds overweight like Kirkland, I’d say that gives the 24-year-old Canelo an excellent chance of winning the fight.
I just wonder who Canelo will pick next after he wins. Will he pick another inactive fighter with weight problems?
Tickets for the Canelo-Kirkland fight are going from $10 to as high as $350. Compared to the high cost of the Mayweather-Pacquiao tickets, the Canelo vs. Kirkland tickets are a steal. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions is hoping that as much as 45,000 tickets will be sold.
That would sellout the Minute Maid Stadium if that many tickets were sold. De La Hoya might come up short of the 45,000 mark though, because Canelo hasn’t been doing too well lately with his poor performances against Floyd Mayweather Jr, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout.
The way Canelo has fought, I don’t know that there’s going to be 45,000 fans willing to purchase tickets to see him fight Kirkland, even at the bargain basement prices they’re selling the tickets for.
The negative thing about Canelo fighting someone as rusty and out of shape as Kirkland is that Canelo’s career is going to be in the dumps if he loses the fight.
Even if Canelo wins and looks terrible again, he’s going to lose a lot of fans. If Canelo gets another controversial decision given to him like he did in the Trout and Lara fights, it’s going to cause Canelo’s credibility to go up in smoke.
For Canelo’s fans not to be disappointed in his performance, he’s going to need to look especially good against Kirkland. It won’t help if Canelo looks horrible and still wins. And it also won’t help Canelo if Kirkland looks as well as Angulo did, because a lot of boxing fans thought that fight was kind of fishy.
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