By Duke Pahulu: It’s obvious that Golden Boy is setting WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) up for a big fight. They have been feeding Canelo tomato cans and damaged goods since winning his 154 title. So lets see who is out there for Golden Boy to cash in on for their Canelo project.
Golden Boy stated during the lead-up of the Lopez fight that they wanted to put Canelo in the ring in December. Miguel Cotto is set to face Austin Trout. “K-9” Cornelius Brundage is facing Andre Berto. And Vanes Martiyosan vs. Erislandy Lara is set as well. James Kirkland is in a legal battle with his corner and promoter.
So that leaves Carlos Molina. Molina gave Lara all he could handle, beat Kermit Cintron at a time when he was still good and gave Kirkland a boxing lesson until the ref robbed Molina of a victory. The big carrot out there for Canelo is Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he won’t return until Cinco de Mayo. And if the trend of Floyd’s foes continue, Canelo has to come off a good win against a credible foe to warrant a fight.
Another blown-up welter or old lion won’t cut it. Molina is the man and Canelo has a good shot at beating him. Molina doesn’t have the power to knockout Canelo but he has real boxing skills that can test Canelo for the first time in his career. Golden Boy is only doing Floyd a favor by not testing Canelo prior to matching both together. Canelo needs a stern test prior to facing Floyd. When has a titlist gone 40 plus fights without fighting a legit threat in his weight class? Canelo has been abusing his star power by not facing credible foes. He can get away with it because his fans want to see him rather than see him get tested. I believe Golden Boy was set to use last Saturday night as a springboard to a Floyd-Canelo fight when they were pitching Kirkland and Paul Williams as potential foes. Let’s hope Golden Boy seals the deal with a legit 154 fighter for Canelo in December.
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