By Jason Kim: If WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KO’s) can get by his opponent Kermit Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KO’s) this Saturday night in Mexico, Alvarez has several interesting fights he can choose from starting with a mega fight against World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Since that fight would involve having Alvarez’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions work a deal with Chavez’s promoters at Top Rank, the fight likely won’t get made any time soon. As such, Alvarez will likely face fellow Golden Boy fighters James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KO’s) or Erislandy Lara 15-1-1, 10 Ko’s) next.
Either one of those guys would make for an exciting fight for Alvarez. However, those are very dangerous fighters for the young 21-year-old Alvarez to be taking on at this point in his early career. That’s partly the fault of Alvarez’s promoters by rushing him into picking up a paper title with a win over welterweight fringe contender Matthew Hatton last March.
Hatton wasn’t even a junior middleweight, yet that’s who Alvarez fought for the vacant World Boxing Council title. Had Alvarez been forced to take on a tough contender like Vanes Martirosyan or Kirkland, there’s no telling what would have happened. Alvarez probably needs another two to three years before he comes into his prime but he’s not going to be able to be taken slowly because he’s saddled with the WBC strap.
This means he’s got to take on dangerous fighters every now and then. Thus far, Alvarez has been carefully matched since he captured the WBC strap. He’s fought Ryan Rhodes and Alfonso Gomez, two decent but not dangerous challengers. And on Saturday night, Alvarez will be fighting the 32-year-old Cintron, who has lost two out of his last three fights.
That kind of tells you something about Cintron, although he should have been credited with a loss in the Sergio Martinez as well. He’s really not fighting at the same level he did four years ago, and Alvarez should win this fight fairly easily as long as he doesn’t run into one of Cintron’s still lethal right hands.
But after this fight, Alvarez has to take on someone tough and that will likely be Lara or Kirkland. If I were to make a Guess, I’d say Lara gets the pick. He doesn’t hit as hard as Kirkland and is more of a boxer and less of a pressure fighter. This is the type of opponent that Alvarez can pick apart with his heavy shots in a methodical manner. I think Kirkland would be too much for Alvarez right now, and I doubt Golden Boy will want to take a chance by matching him against him.
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