By Dan Ambrose: Rather than step up and face WBA 154 lb. champion Erislandy Lara next, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO’s) vs. IBF junior middleweight champion Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6 KO’s) on pay-per-view on March 8th. According to Steve Kim, this would be Canelo’s option of Miguel Cotto decides to fight WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez instead of facing him.
There still isn’t any word whether Cotto will accept the $10 million+ offer made by Golden Boy Promotions for him to face the red-haired Canelo next. But there is talk that Cotto will face the 38-year-old Sergio next because the fight gives him a little more money, and an opportunity to fight for a 4th division world title. Cotto has already captured division titles at 140, 147 and 154.
Kim said:
Im hearing if Cotto chooses to face Martinez, it'll be Canelo vs Carlos Molina on March 8th. Who buys that PPV? #boxing
— Steve Kim (@stevemaxboxing) December 10, 2013
If Canelo does choose to fight a safe fight against Molina instead of stepping it up and facing Lara, it’s going to probably result in incredibly low PPV numbers for the Canelo-Molina fight. I’d like to think that Golden Boy will do what they have to do in order talk Canelo out of having that fight for PPV. If Canelo wants to fight Molina then the fight needs to be on regular Showtime, not PPV.
Can you picture Golden Boy trying to market Canelo-Molina as a PPV bout? What an awful fight. That would be even worse than the recent Top Rank card head-lined by Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios with Evgeny Gradovich vs. Billy Dib as the co-feature. I think Canelo can be a PPV fighter, but not against Molina. I think Floyd Mayweather Jr. would even struggle to bring in fans if he were to choose Molina as his next opponent.
Canelo needs to do the right thing and face Erislandy Lara, because if he chooses to fight Carlos Molina for his IBF paper title, Canelo is going to look weak for having chosen that route. Canelo doesn’t want to be seen as ducking Lara, does he?
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