By Dan Ambrose: If Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs) dethrones WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith (23-0-1, 13 KOs) in their fight on September 17, Canelo’s next move is a fight against WBC middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12 KOs) in December on HBO.
For Saunders to get the payday fight against Canelo, he might need to agree to a catch-weight of 157lbs otherwise no fight. There’s talk that Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for the 25-year-old Canelo, wants Saunders to fight on the undercard of the Canelo-Smith fight on September 17 so that the U.S boxing public gets a chance to see him, and thus will likely be more likely to be receptive to a second consecutive fight against a British fighter.
The fight against the 26-year-old Saunders will give Canelo preparation for a match against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in the fall of 2017. If Canelo can win the WBO 154 and WBO 160lb titles, it would help increase his popularity in the U.S in theory, because he would be seen winning titles one after another.
The casual boxing fans wouldn’t have a clue that Canelo is facing what many of the hardcore fans see as the weakest of the champions at 154 and 160 rather than the beat. But more importantly, having the WBO middleweight title would give Canelo a prop to use when going into the ring with Golovkin next year if Canelo and Golden Boy decides to take the fight.
Further, Canelo being in the possession of the WBO 160lb title might help him get a bigger cut of the revenue in a unification fight with Golovkin. It would enable Canelo and Golden Boy to tell Golovkin, his promoter Tom Loeffler, and the fans that he’s a world champion at 160 too, and not just GGG.
“Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez to face [potentially Billy Joe Saunders in December for the global title of the World Boxing Organization (WBO),” said Univision. “The Mexican is committed against Liam Smith for the WBO junior middleweight belt on September 17. If he passes the test, ‘Canelo will go for the 160-pound crown against Saunders before year’s end. At the moment, the race against the Kazak has been ruled out, but Oscar De La Hoya said that the battle will be in autumn 2017.”
Golovkin has made it no secret that he would like to be the one that faces Saunders for his WBO middleweight title. Thus far, Golovkin and his promoter have been unable to get the fight against him. Canelo will likely have little trouble getting Saunders to readily agree to a fight against him because it would be a big payday for the British fighter, and he probably won’t turn it down. Canelo vs. Saunders would likely be a big pay-per-view event in the UK. It’s not a fight that would sell well in the U.S, but that might not keep Golden Boy from making it PPV event anyway.
As long as Golovkin gets a shot at the WBO belt, I don’t think he would mind too much that he would have to face Canelo for the belt rather than Saunders, who wouldn’t be nearly as good of opponent for him due to him being an unknown to American audiences.
What would be really bad is if Canelo defeats Saunders to win the WBO middleweight title, and then turns around and avoids Golovkin in 2017. There wouldn’t be anything Golovkin could do about it. Even if the World Boxing Organization bent over backwards to make it easy for Golovkin to become the mandatory for the WBO belt as the WBC did, there would be nothing preventing Canelo from vacating the WBO title to avoid Golovkin a second time. Only the hardcore boxing fans would know about it because the casual don’t follow the sport closely enough to know the intricacies such as one fighter ducking another.
Saunders is similar fighter to Canelo. He doesn’t have the punching power that Canelo possesses, but he boxes well like him. Saunders is a pretty slick fighter like Canelo with good hand speed and mobility. Like Canelo, Saunders has stamina issues that limit his effectiveness. Saunders is a very good fighter for six to eight rounds. After that, he fades badly and tends to lose the last four to six rounds when matched against quality opposition.