By Angel Flowers: WBO Junior Middleweight Champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez expects to be back in the ring by Cinco de Mayo in 2017 after injuring his right thumb in his 9th round knockout win over World Boxing Organization 154lb champion Liam Smith on September 17.
Alvarez had originally wanted to fight again in December and take on a bigger fight next year on the Mexican holiday. Alvarez expects to get some of the big names around his weight class to fight him, but after what he did to Liam Smith and Amir Khan, I doubt he will get many takers in that department.
I suspect only boxers willing to challenge themselves will be the only contenders, people looking for middleweight kingpin Gennady “GGG” Golovkin to finally step up shouldn’t hold their breath.
Alvarez agreed to fight Gennady Golovkin at 160 pounds and offered to double his biggest payday by giving him a guaranteed 10 million dollars. This is a lot for a fighter whose previous high was just under 5 million for fighting the welterweight Kell “Special K” Brook recently on September 10.
Before that, Golovkin’s biggest payday was $2 million in a title unification bout with former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux last October on HBO pay-per-view in GGG’s only failed pay per view, which failed to break 150,000 buys.
Golovkin now is pricing himself out of the Canelo fight by negotiating a bigger share of the purse despite not being a big name in the pay per view department. You can look for GGG to keep asking for more than he’s worth, which will prevent his fight against Alvarez from happening. I expect Golovkin to chase the other middleweight champion in Billy Jo Saunders, who himself is in line for a big payday.
Saunders is far from running scared of Canelo, and will make no excuses. I think he wants to challenge himself and is willing to meet Alvarez at least halfway if the fight is ever offered to him. Saunders has already fought and beaten Chris Eubank Jr. and will continue this streak of fearlessness next year. Of all the fights pay-per-view king Alvarez has available to him, I think Saunders is the one most likely to get made unless the Mexico vs Puerto Rico rivalry heats up again for a rematch between Canelo and Miguel Cotto.
One weight class lower is undefeated welterweight champion Danny Garcia, who despite being American leans heavily on his Puerto Rican roots. Garcia though is seeking to make a fight with the former three division champion in Adrien “The Problem” Broner. If that fight falls through I can see Alvarez offering the fight to Garcia; perhaps meeting at 152 like Canelo did with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their fight in 2013. The Canelo vs. Garcia fight will be exciting why it lasts. While Canelo and Garcia are both are known for having great chins, they are also both known for having heavy hands as well.
Finally, we have the rest of the 154 pound division but I don’t think this will happen. Canelo has already fought and beaten who in my mind is the #2 in the division after himself in Erislandy Lara and #5 in Austin Trout. While there are three other great fighters in the division none of them have a big enough name to be enticing enough for Alvarez to consider fighting. If he did give anyone of them a shot, I expect another repeat of his battles with Trout or Lara, I lot of running and a lot of stalking but ultimately a decision in Alvarez’s favor.