(Photo credit: Golden Boy Promotions, GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS, Ramiro Gonzalez, German Villasenor) By Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO’s) turned 22-years-old today as he prepares for his September 15th title defense against Golden Boy Promotions picked opponent Josesito Lopez (30-4, 18 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Perhaps due to Alvarez’s still young age, Golden Boy is bringing him along slowly by putting him in against less than stellar opposition in his weight class. It’s not that the 27-year-old Lopez isn’t a good fighter, but the fact of the matter is he’s not even a junior middleweight. He’s fought most of his career at light welterweight and only stepped up in his last fight against Victor Ortiz, who he defeated by a 9th round stoppage.
Golden Boy will eventually move Alvarez up against serious opposition as long as he does well against Lopez. Whatever the case, they won’t be able to keep spoon feeding welterweights to Alvarez nor can they continue to put him in with 40-year-olds like Shane Mosley. They’re going to have to let Alvarez face Erislandy Lara or Vanes Martirosyan sooner or later, and hope for the best. Hopefully, they don’t string it out for another year, because Lara is 29, and he can’t wait around forever before he finally gets his shot against the young Alvarez.
Lopez will give it his best shot against Alvarez, but he looked sloppy in beating Ortiz. He was easy to hit and he made a lot of mistakes in the ring. Luckily for him he was in against a fighter that often self destructs in Ortiz, so he was able to dodge an almost certain defeat when Ortiz decided to quit after the 9th round due to a broken jaw he had suffered.
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