Saul Alvarez could defend title against Kirkland on September 15th

By Boxing News - 04/02/2012 - Comments

By Jim Dower: If WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO’s) gets past 40-year-old Shane Mosley on May 5th in their fight on the undercard Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto, Alvarez will be back in the ring on September 15th, possibly against junior middleweight contender James Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO’s), according to RingTV.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer reportedly approached Kirkland’s management about him facing Alvarez on September 15th. Obviously, that’s a fight that Kirkland will take because it’s a huge fight and Alvarez is a fighter that is made for Kirkand’s style of fighting because he won’t be trying to clinch and smother Kirkland the way that Kirkland’s last opponent Carlos Molina did with him on March 24th in Kirkland’s 10th round disqualification victory in Houston, Texas.

However, Kirkland suffered to small tears of his right shoulder in the victory and he went through successful arthroscopic surgery to repair the problem earlier on Monday. The shoulder will now need three months of rehabilitation before Kirkland can continue training. That’ll be pushing it if Golden Boy wants Kirkland to fight Alvarez in September because if Kirkland is going to be taking it easy through all of April, May and June while recovering from surgery, it only leaves July and August to train for the Alvarez fight.

Kirkland’s young enough to get away with it and do well, but you’d like to see a fighter have more time to recover from surgery and train for a fight than being possibly rushed into the fight and get beaten. Alvarez is a lot more consistent fighter than the guys that Kirkland has been put in with, and he hits hard with every shot. Kirkland hasn’t been hit hard for a while and was dropped in his fight against Alfredo Angulo last November. Kirkland might get taken out in a fight against Alvarez. Obviously, Golden Boy likes this match-up for Alvarez. They must see weakness in Kirkland for them to want to put him in with Alvarez.



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