WBC to force Saul Alvarez to fight Lara-Martirosyan winner in early 2013 or he’ll be stripped of title

By Boxing News - 10/01/2012 - Comments

Image: WBC to force Saul Alvarez to fight Lara-Martirosyan winner in early 2013 or he'll be stripped of titleBy Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will have to fight the winner of the November 10th WBC 154 pound eliminator bout between Erislandy Lara and Vanes Martirosyan by early 2013 or the World Boxing Council will strip the 22-year-old Alvarez of his title.

WBC president Jose Sulaiman said to eastsideboxing.com “Saul Alvarez must defend his title against the winner of the November 10th contest between Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara.”

This is definitely a good thing because it’s getting incredibly old see Alvarez fight light welterweights like Josesito Lopez and welterweights like Matthew Hatton and Alfonso Gomez. Golden Boy Promotions has been spoon feeding Alvarez for the past couple of years and it’s time he finally faces a quality contender. I know Alvarez was supposed to fight Paul Williams who badly exposed by Lara, but that still was an impressive pick given how badly Lara dominated Williams. Golden Boy also wanted to match Alvarez up with James Kirkland, but I think that would have been another less than dangerous fight for Alvarez because Kirkland had an injured shoulder from his fight with Carlos Molina, and he would have been less than 100 percent.

Golden Boy will likely slip in an optional title defense for Alvarez in December before he’s forced to fight the winner of the Lara-Martirosyan fight in early 2013. It’s anyone’s guess who Alvarez will fight in December, because it’s not going to be Miguel Cotto, Austin Trout, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, or Sergio Martinez.

My guess is they’ll match Alvarez with former WBO junior middleweight champion Serhiy Dzinziruk, who looked completely awful in his last fight in getting a gift draw against Jonathan Gonzalez last month on September 1st. If not him, then look for Alvarez to be matched with another welterweight. I hope it’s another welterweight, but I’d be willing to be that a welterweight will end up fighting Alvarez if Dzinziruk doesn’t get the fight. Golden Boy would obviously love it if Floyd Mayweather Jr. took the fight with Alvarez because they’d do really well even if Alvarez was totally schooled by Mayweather.

The money and the attention that Alvarez would receive would be so good for his career that it wouldn’t be a big deal if he was completely out-classed by Mayweather. However, that’s not going to happen because Mayweather has been completely silent about the idea of fighting again in 2012. If there’s going to be an Alvarez-Mayweather fight it’ll have to happen in 2013, if at all. I wouldn’t be surprised either if Alvarez vacated his WBC title rather than facing the Lara-Martirosyan winner. That would be something I could see him doing.



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