By Dan Ambrose: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) had a disappointing year in 2012 to along with an equally disappointing 2011 in terms of the competition he faced. This year, Alvarez fought and defeated light welterweight Josesito Lopez and 40-year-old Shane Mosley. That’s it. Alvarez skipped the December fight that Golden Boy wanted to make for him, choosing instead to rest up until May of next year.
Alvarez is quoted by RingTV saying that he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr, Sergio Martinez or Miguel Cotto in his next fight on May 5th next year.
This month Erislandy Lara and Vanes Martirosyan are fighting a WBC 154 lb eliminator bout with the winner becoming Alvarez’s mandatory challenger. But it doesn’t look like Alvarez is in a hurry to fight the winner.
Should Golden Boy come up empty in their attempts to get one of the three big names for Alvarez – Mayweather, Sergio Martinez or Cotto – will Alvarez choose to fight the Lara vs. Martirosyan winner on May 5th? It would be nice to see Alvarez do that because he’s been disappointing in the opposition he’s faced during his career.
These are Alvarez’s last 10 opponents:
Josesito Lopez
Shane Mosley
Kermit Cintron
Alfonso Gomez
Ryan Rhodes
Matthew Hatton
Lovemore Ndou
Carlos Baldomir
Luciano Leonel Cuello
Jose Miguel Cotto
If you honestly look at that bunch it’s hard to make an argument that Alvarez really deserves Cotto, Mayweather or Martinez at that point. Those are decent fighters but come on those are hardly dangerous opposition. Hatton is a welterweight, Ndou is a former light welterweight, Lopez is a light welterweight, Mosley was 40-years-old, Ndou and Baldomir were both 39 and Cintron and Rhodes had seen better days.
It’s impossible to look at that bunch and say that Alvarez deserves to get the fight that he wants Golden Boy to make for him in May against the top fighters. Alvarez hasn’t paid his dues yet by taking on and proving that he can beat the best contenders that the World Boxing Council has ranked below him, let alone take on top guys like Cotto, Mayweather and Martinez. I have a feeling that Alvarez will never fight Lara or Martirosyan. I just think he’ll vacate rather than face one of those guys. I hope I’m wrong but that’s how I see it.
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