By Dan Ambrose: The Nevada State Athletic Commission has granted Floyd Mayweather Jr’s request for him to fight on September 12th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This past week, Mayweather submitted a request to the Commission in Nevada to fight on September 12th.

The Commission had until Thursday of this week to make a decision on Mayweather’s request, and they granted his wish. With Mayweather now locked in for September 12th, it puts pressure on Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to either do the smart thing by backing down and getting off the September 12th date in order to salvage his next fight, or to choose to stay on the date no matter what.

Canelo’s manager Eddy Reynoso said on Wednesday that Canelo will be fighting on September 12th [on HBO]. He said that Canelo will not back off the date like he did during the last Mexican holiday on May 2nd for Cinco de Mayo.

That was the date that Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao in the “Fight of the Century” in Las Vegas. There was no way that Canelo could have competed with him for that date. But after giving up that Mexican holiday date to Mayweather, Canelo doesn’t want to give up the September 12th date, which falls on the Mexican Independence holiday.

“Nevada commission granted a slew of dates for events, including Sept. 12 for Floyd Mayweather’s next fight at MGM Grand. #boxing,” Dan Rafael said on his Twitter.

Mayweather still hasn’t given any hint about who he’ll be facing for his next fight in September. There have been all kinds of speculation about Mayweather possibly snatching Miguel Cotto away from Canelo and facing him next in order to maximize the amount of PPV buys he can get for the fight. Welterweights Amir Khan and Kell Brook are also possibilities, but they’re not in the same class as Cotto in terms of popularity in the U.S.

Cotto is way above them in popularity, and he would be the ideal opponent for Mayweather if he were willing to move down to 154 to face Mayweather. It’s doubtful that Mayweather will choose to fight Cotto at middleweight because it would be too much weight for Mayweather to be giving up. But then again, Mayweather defeated both Canelo and Marcos Maidana, both of which came into the ring in the mid-160s against Mayweather. He was giving up almost 15 pounds against both of them.

Cotto weighs in a little over 160 for his fights at middleweight. I think it would be no different than if Mayweather were to fight Canelo or Maidana again. Mayweather beat Cotto by a 12 round decision in 2012. In a rematch, you have to expect that Mayweather would give Cotto very few chances to land his shots. Mayweather would likely move around the ring like he did against Maidana in their rematch and make it all but impossible for Cotto to land anything at all.