By Dan Ambrose: Earlier today, it was made official that the May 7 Golden Boy promoted card headlined by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) vs. Amir Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) will officially be taking place at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is a good chance for boxing fans to see the pulling power of the 25-year-old Canelo because the venue seats 20,000 fans. A super star like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao would no doubt sell out the venue.
If Canelo can do the same thing, then it will show the fans how much ground he’s gained on those two aging superstars. Canelo is capable of drawing big crowds in Texas, but we don’t know if he can do the same thing in places like Las Vegas, Los Angeles, California or New York City.
This will give Canelo the chance to show whether he can bring in the fans to fill the T-Mobile Arena.
The Canelo-Khan fight will be televised on HBO pay-per-view.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya is excited about the fight being staged at the T-Mobile Arena. He is obviously hoping that it will have a good turnout for the fight. We will see. De La Hoya needs his golden goose Canelo to win this fight without any slipups, because he has pegged the 25-year-old to be the replacement for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao as the sports highest pay-per-view attraction. De La Hoya thinks Canelo will be the No.1 PPV fighter for the next 10 years, and he thinks he will carry the sport on his back during that time.
For that to happen, Canelo will probably need to beat Khan and Gennady Golovkin. I say probably because Canelo did not appear to lose any fans after his loss to Mayweather in 2013. If anything, Canelo seems to be more popular now than he was before he fought Mayweather. This means that it does not matter whether Canelo loses occasionally.
As long as he wins most of the time, the fans will quickly forget about his losses and continue to adore him.
De La Hoya is working on locking up a fight between Canelo and Gennady Golovkin at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. De La Hoya met with Jerry Jones, the owner of the stadium and the NFL team the Dallas Cowboys. This is a fight that De La Hoya wants to put together when/if Canelo gets past Khan on 5/7.
The plan is to stage the Canelo-Golovkin fight in September on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend. What is unclear is whether De La Hoya will let Canelo take the fight in September. With the way that De La Hoya is talking, he sounds like it might not take place.
“Boy, that stadium is incredible. Jerry has been wanting to meet with me for quite a while now. With his stadium and Golden Boy and Canelo, I strongly believe it will be a perfect match down the line to stage a fight with Canelo there,” De La Hoya said.
You did read the part where De La Hoya says “Down the line.” Believe me, when someone talks like that, it generally means that it’s something that won’t be happening anytime soon. For example, if a girl says she will go out with you sometime “down the line,” it kind of means that you should not hold your breath waiting for that date to take place because it is probably not going to happen.
“We didn’t talk about a specific fight, but we discussed Canelo. With Jerry Jones’ machine there, he expressed that by bringing Canelo, he could sell the place out. That’s how strong the Hispanic market is in Dallas, and Jerry Jones recognizes that,” said De La Hoya.
There it is. De La Hoya is admitting that the Canelo-Golovkin fight is not on the agenda for September. If he’s not talking about a specific fight with Jerry Jones for September, then that tells me that he’s not planning on putting Canelo in with Golovkin. It tells me that Canelo is going to put him in with someone else not named Golovkin. I think it’s a waste of a time though for Canelo and De La Hoya to be booking the AT&T Stadium if all they’re going to do is put him in with another voluntary challenger.
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