After suffering the first loss of his professional boxing career last September at the hands of the WBA and WBC Junior Middleweight Champion Floyd Mayweather, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez got back up on his horse and scored a victory on March 8 over Alfredo Angulo. The fight with Angulo took place at junior middleweight division, but Alvarez was unable to trim down to the maximum weight limit of 154 lbs. Alvarez came in one pound over and was forced to pay Angulo an additional 100k. The added weight did not bother Alvarez during his bout with Angulo as he scored a TKO in the 10th round. Some people see Alvarez’s professional record of 43-1-1 and forget that he is only 23-years of age. The biggest fight that Alvarez has had so far was his defeat to Mayweather. Alvarez will have many more big fights during his career, but should they come at junior middleweight or at middleweight?
At middleweight, Alvarez has scored victories over Shane Mosley and Austin Trout. Being that Alvarez was dominated by Mayweather in their bout, I highly doubt that he will get a rematch against the pound-for-pound king of boxing. But Alvarez will have his eyes on the May 2 when WBA Interim Junior Middleweight Champion Erislandy Lara defends his title against Ishe Smith. Lara holds a professional record of 19-1-2 with victories over Trout and Angulo. Lara’s only professional loss was a controversial one at the hands of Paul Williams back in 2011. For the past few years Alvarez has wanted to fight Miguel Cotto, but Cotto is moving up to middleweight to take on the WBC and Ring Magazine Middleweight Champion Sergio Martinez on June 7. Regardless of the outcome of his fight with Martinez, Cotto could still take a fight with Alvarez regardless if the bout took place at a catch-weight or if Cotto moved back down to 154. But going forward there is more money for Alvarez at middleweight.
Current WBO Middleweight Champion Peter Quillin is undefeated with a record of 30-0. Middleweight contender Martin Murray has a professional record of 26-1-1 with that one loss being extremely controversial after he dominated Martinez in his native country of Argentina only to get robbed. Martinez is 39-years of age and he has plenty of ring savvy to go along with his 51 career victories which could make for an interesting bout with Alvarez. Finally at middleweight, there is the current WBA Champion Gennady Golovkin. Golovkin has developed a reputation as a knockout artist. Golovkin has a professional record of 29-0 with 26 victories coming by way of knockout. Golovkin is in the process of negotiating a deal to fight super middleweight contender Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this summer, but wouldn’t we just love to see two of the best punchers that the sport of boxing has to offer in Golovkin and Alvarez get it on?
Alvarez is represented by Golden Boy Promotions who currently has an exclusive contract with Showtime while most of the fighters that I have mentioned fight for Top Rank Boxing which currently airs on HBO. Obviously the fans and the sport of boxing overall suffer from this separation, but money talks which means that we could see a resolution at some point during our lifetime.
Oscar De La Hoya is the founder of Golden Boy Promotions and he has taken Alvarez under his wing. Some may call Alvarez “Golden Boy’s new Golden Boy” and De La Hoya has guided his career up to this point. But with all of the exposure that Alvarez has received in the past few years, the time is right for him to think about a move up in weight for bigger paydays.
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