By Dan Ambrose: The talk of WBC light middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KO’s) facing WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (43-0-1, 30 KO’s) in a catchweight fight at 158 pounds was shot down by Alvarez, who reportedly said he’s not looking to fight Chavez Jr. now.
Instead, the 21-year-old Alvarez is interested in facing WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (36-2, 29 KO’s) or 39-year-old former three division world champion Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KO’s).
Bob Arum, the promoter for Chavez Jr., is very interested in matching Chavez Jr. up with Alvarez as soon as possible. Arum realizes how big this fight would be in Mexico and no doubt wants to capitalize on this as soon as possible. It would be the biggest opportunity for his fighter Chavez Jr. to get a big payday before he gets beaten by someone else popular.
However, Alvarez doesn’t seem to have much interest in taking on the much bigger Chavez Jr. right now.
It would be a difficult fight to make anyway because of the two different promotional companies involved – Golden Boy Promotions, who promote Alvarez, and the Top Rank promoted Chavez Jr. But the catchweight of 158 lbs clearly favors the 6’0″ Chavez Jr. compared the 5’9″ Alvarez, who only recently moved up to 154 lbs. With Chavez Jr. coming into his last fight weighing a huge 180 lbs after rehydrating, Alvarez would be facing a small cruiserweight in Chavez Jr.
I think Alvarez would still win, but what’s the point? Chavez Jr. really needs to move up in weight because he clearly isn’t a middleweight anymore. It’s going to be interesting to see his trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning coach Alex Ariza trying to get him down to 160 for his next fight against Peter Manfredo Jr. in November. I can see Chavez Jr. barely making the weight and then ballooning back up to 180 lbs after the weigh-in.
A fight against Cotto is a good one for Alvarez. That’s the best he can hope for in the division right now. His two contenders Alfredo Angulo and Vanes Martirosyan are dangerous threats to him, but aren’t well known among causal boxing fans in the United States. That won’t be a big fight.
Fighting Mosley is the much less appealing bout for Alvarez, but would still bring in bigger ratings than if Alvarez were to fight Angulo and Martirosyan. Alvarez would beat Mosley at this stage in Mosley’s career because he appears to be completely shot. Mosley might make it interesting for a couple of rounds, but that’s about it.
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