By Dan Ambrose: WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be fighting at the new 20,000 seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 7, according to Fight News. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions have already booked the Arena. Whether Canelo can sellout the 20K arena will determine largely on the quality of the opponent for him.
If Canelo ends up facing the struggling Gabriel Rosado, who has won only once in his last six fights, then I think Canelo will be lucky if he can sell 5,000 tickets for that sick mismatch. But if Canelo fights someone that could potentially beat him like Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade, then I think there’s a good chance that he can sellout the arena.
The opponent still isn’t known for Canelo, and this could be a real disappointment with who they come up with. Unlike Gennady Golovkin, Canelo can pretty much get anyone he wants. He’s got the name and he’s not seen as invincible. On the contrary, Canelo is seen as a very beatable guy by boxing fans, and he’s quite lucky not to have an additional two losses on his 46-1-1, 32 KOs record, because many fans feel that he lost to Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. The fact that Canelo can get the nod in fights where he appears to have lost shows you how powerful he is. To beat Canelo by a decision, you have to do something really special.
Golovkin wanted to be the one that’s facing Canelo on May 7, but instead Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy are going to be likely looking at a much safer alternative. The idea is supposedly for Canelo to help build up a fight against Golovkin by fighting someone else on May 7. At least that’s the idea that the World Boxing Council had when they gave Canelo permission to fight someone else rather than Golokvin next. However, it’s probable that Canelo will face another soft opponent similar to Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland rather than a difficult guy that could potentially give him another loss.
It kind of defeats the whole purpose of building up the Golovkin fight by Canelo facing someone that is a no-hoper like Rosado or Vanes Martirosyan. However, we don’t even really know if Canelo is seriously interested in facing Golovkin. It’s quite possible that as soon as he gets done with his opponent on May 7, he’ll go ahead and vacate his WBC 160lb title rather than face Golovkin and risk getting knocked out by him on HBO PPV.
Golovkin is looking to take on the best possible opponent. He’s hoping to face WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders or Chris Eubank Jr. for his next fight. Those guys are really tough outs, and Golovkin will definitely need to bring his A-game if he wants to come up with a victory over them. Golovkin will be doing his part to try and make the Canelo fight bigger by facing the very best possible opponent he can get. I just wonder if Canelo will do his part. If so, then I would expect to see him in the ring with no less than someone like Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Lara, Daniel Jacobs or Peter Quillin.
Comments are closed.