De La Hoya: Saul Alvarez to fight on Mayweather-Cotto undercard on May 5th; Still looking for an opponent

By Boxing News - 02/01/2012 - Comments

Image: De La Hoya: Saul Alvarez to fight on Mayweather-Cotto undercard on May 5th; Still looking for an opponentBy William Mackay: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions revealed on his twitter page that WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) will be fighting on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto undercard on May 5th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

De La Hoya has several ideas of who he might want to match the 21-year-old Alvarez up against but he’s not saying who it will be.

De La Hoya said “I have a few options for Canelo on May 5th. Who do you think.”

It seems pretty obvious that De La Hoya is going to pick out an old lion like 40-year-old Shane Mosley, but that might get in the way of using Mosley for a fight against former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan.

Since Khan isn’t going to be getting his rematch that he wanted against Lamont Peterson, Khan will be moving up to 147 and Mosley’s name has already been mentioned as a leading candidate to fight Khan in May at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The Mayweather-Cotto card will be a high visibility card and Golden Boy has to take advantage of this by matching Alvarez up against a recognizable name. Mosley’s would be perfect if he’s not going to be used by Khan.

Mosley hasn’t won a fight in three years and looks to be completely shot. He could give a top fighter problems for two or three rounds, but after that he’s basically in the shutdown mode and fades.

Here are the options at junior middleweight for Alvarez:

• Paul Williams
• Shane Mosley
• Demetrius Hopkins
• Erislandy Lara
• James Kirkland
• Nobuhiro Ishida
• Vanes Martirosyan
• Antonio Margarito
• Delvin Rodriguez
• Alfredo Angulo
• Yudel Jhonson

I can’t see any of those guys getting a shot against Alvarez. Lara, Kirkland, Rodriguez, Angulo and Williams would have a decent chance of beating him. He’s not going to fight Margarito because he’s a Top Rank fighter. Mosley seems to be the best guy unless De La Hoya is going to pick an obscure fighter to throw in with Alvarez. I could see that happening for sure because he’s already matched him against Ryan Rhodes, a British fighter that only hardcore boxing fans had ever heard of in the United States.



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