By Dan Ambrose: Depending on if Saul Canelo Alvarez’s fractured right thumb is healed or not, he could be back inside the ring in early 2017 to slip in another fight before he fights on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo in May. Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) suffered a fractured right thumb in his 9th round knockout win over WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Canelo’s cast was removed from his right hand on Wednesday as part of an exam by a second doctor. Canelo still has inflammation of his ligaments, per Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez via the latimes.com. A new cast was put on the 26-year-old Canelo.
The cast will be removed next month on November 10 for another exam. If Canelo’s fractured hand is healed, the idea is for him to fight in early 2017 to get in another fight before his fight in May.
If Canelo still has pain in his right hand after his cast is removed on November 10, then it would likely mean no fight for Canelo in early 2017. He would then likely wait until May 2017 before fighting again.
“if Canelo wants to stay sharp … and for him, it’s important to stay in fighting shape. If there’s any discomfort when that cast comes off, then there’s no chance” of Alvarez fighting in early 2017. We’ll just wait until May,” said Gomez to the latimes.com.
Realistically, Canelo might not even need his right hand depending on who Golden Boy puts him in with. If they drag another welterweight up to 160 to fight, then that’s a fight that Canelo can win with just his left hand unless he fights a talented welterweight contender like Errol Spence Jr.
Eric Gomez wants Canelo to fight twice more before he meets up with Golovkin in the fall of 2017 in September on the Mexican Independence Day holiday. That’s when Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya said he wants to make the Canelo-Golovkin fight. Of course, De La Hoya has already given Golovkin an eight –figure offer of $10 million rather than a percentage cut of the revenue. $10 million would be a GREAT deal for Golovkin if the fight were to generate $20 million. But it wouldn’t be such a great deal if the fight brings in between $100 million to $200 million.
That would mean that Golovkin would get $10 million, and Canelo would split the rest of the money with his promoters at Golden Boy and the cable distributers. It’s not hard to imagine Canelo going home with 10 to 20 times more money than Goovkin. Again, it would be a great deal for Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions, but not a great deal for Golovkin. He brings in all the fans, and Canelo keeps the money after giving Golovkin a flat fee.
One possible opponent for Canelo’s fight in early 2017 was eliminated with Gabriel Rosado getting beaten by Willie Monroe Jr. by a 12 round unanimous decision on the undercard of the Canelo-Smith fight. The deal was that the winner of the Rosado-Monroe fight was supposed to have been getting a fight against Canelo. However, when Monroe Jr. won the fight over Rosado, Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso reportedly ruled him out as an opponent.
Monroe Jr. isn’t too happy about this news, because he was under the impression that he would get a fight against Canelo if he beat Rosado. Monroe even purposely chose not to use his boxing skills to move around the ring against Rosado, because he didn’t want to hear stuff about how he ran from him. Monroe stayed in the pocket for 12 rounds and beat Rosado by out-slugging him. Monroe is really disappointed that he can’t get the fight against Canelo.
Canelo’s potential opponents will likely be from this list: Billy Joe Saunders, David Lemieux or Curtis Stevens. Canelo is supposed to be fighting a middleweight next rather than defending his newly won WBO 154lb title. It might be too dangerous for Canelo to defend his WBO title, because he would be under pressure from boxing fans to fight #1 WBO contender Demetrius Andrade. That might be too tough of an opponent for Canelo, because Andrade and box as well as punch. It would be a nightmarish fight for Canelo, but there’s little chance that his promoters at Golden Boy would risk putting him with Andrade.
Canelo injured his right hand early in his contest with the 28-year-old Liam Smith in the 2nd round. Canelo was still able to keep using his right hand, but he had pain when he would land it. By the 9th round, Canelo was rarely using his right. He was throwing mainly left hooks and doing well with that punch.
The injury forced Canelo to throw body shots, and that turned out to be more than enough for him to beat Smith. It was fortunate that Canelo wasn’t fighting IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 32 KOs), because he would have needed a lot more than a left hand for him to compete in that fight. It’s safe to say that Canelo would have been battered and beaten by Golovkin if he was forced to fight him one hand, especially with the way that he kept retreating to the ropes each time he would get tired.
Canelo needs to work on his stamina in his time out of the ring because there’s no reason for him to be turning red-faced and needing to back up against the ropes so frequently. Canelo is sup[posed to be in the prime of his career. Why then he keeps getting tired and needing rest breaks against the ropes is the big question. Canelo doesn’t have the body to be fighting fast paced fights for long distances. That’s bad news for Canelo if/when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin in 2017. If Canelo can’t fight hard for more than a couple of rounds without needing a rest break against the ropes, then Golovkin is going to bludgeon him into submission.