Mayweather vs. Guerrero in the works for May 4th, Canelo Alvarez possible for undercard

12/23/201212/22/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Bill Phanco: A fight between WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KO’s) WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KO’s) is reportedly in the works for May 4th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The contracts haven’t been signed as of yet, but this appears to be the fight that the 35-year-old Mayweather wants for the Cinco de Mayo Mexican holiday on May 4th.

Guerrero has won two big fights since moving up to the welterweight division this year in beating Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto. Both wins were decisive, and Guerrero did a good job of winning despite showing a lack of big power in both. Although he’s moved up from the lightweight division, Guerrero hasn’t lost his high work rate that he was known for in the lower weight classes.

Mayweather had one of his worst performances in his career in his last fight against Miguel Cotto last May. Floyd won the fight but he took some terrible punishment and he looked like he’s lost a step or two.

WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) is being talked about as being the co-main event for this pay per view card on HBO. Alvarez’s potential opponents for the fight are Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland or Austin Trout.

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Saul Alvarez says he’s close to finalizing a fight with Mayweather Jr

09/15/201612/14/2012 Eddy Pronishev

alvarez454 By Brad Cronick: 22-year-old WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) believes he’s going to be fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. (43-0, 26 KO’s) on May 4th next year. Alvarez wants the fight badly, and it was thought that Mayweather was looking in the direction of fighting WBC interim champion Robert Guerrero, but Alvarez is now saying he’s the guy that will be getting the fight with Mayweather.

Alvarez said on his Facebook page “Out next fight is scheduled to take place on May 4, we are close to finalizing the Mayweather fight.”

I’ll believe it when I see it. I really can’t see Mayweather Jr. making this fight with the young Alvarez, but I don’t blame Alvarez for getting eager and hoping. It’s just that Mayweather tends to take the safe route, and he doesn’t tend to take on guys that are tearing fighters apart the way that Alvarez is right now. But perhaps the most important reason why I do see Mayweather taking on Alvarez is because of the way that Mayweather had to really struggle to beat Miguel Cotto last May.

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Canelo Alvarez now interested in Austin Trout for May 4th, if Mayweather bout can’t be made

09/15/201612/05/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Rob Smith: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is now reportedly interested in facing WBA junior middleweight champion Austin Trout on May 4th, if a bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr. can’t get made. The Mayweather fight is the one that Canelo really wants most of all, and he said to the record.com.mx that his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are attempting to put the Mayweather fight together for him. But if all else fails, Canelo said he’d be looking towards a fight with Trout.

Canelo said to the record.com.mx “Trout is a great fighter, and unbeaten and he beat Cotto, he’s left handed and very strong. He’s a complicated fighter and he would be fine for next May.”

Trout has been taking heavy criticism from boxing fans because his promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy said that Alvarez could still end fighting Miguel Cotto next in May despite the fact that Cotto was beaten soundly last Saturday night by Trout.

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If Trout Is Out, Who’s In?

09/15/201612/04/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Eric Roman Sr. – A lot of talk has been made about the possible showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto, even though the wily veteran lost a unanimous decision to Austin Trout this past weekend. As we all know, Cotto has had an incredible career, a sure fire Hall of Famer, and one of the greatest Puerto Rican fighters of all time, but at this point, much like “Sugar” Shane Mosely back in May, do we really need to see an all time great get battered by this young ferocious lion? Before the Trout fight, I was all for it, I thought it was a no-brainer. Two similar styles, both being boxer-punchers, the “old” versus the “new”, Puerto Rico vs. Mexico, can it get any better? Well, the problem with all that is the fact that Austin Trout made it all go away. He showed us that Miguel Cotto may be a little more past his prime then we thought, let’s face it, he left it all in the ring against Floyd Mayweather back in May, and those type of fights, along with both Margarito brawls, the Pacquiao bout, and a number of others when he was at 140lbs. have taken a lot out of him.

Enter Austin “No Doubt” Trout, a young, undefeated title holder, who has an excellent amateur pedigree, who just beat the aforementioned Puerto Rican Star, has been calling out Saul Alvarez since “The Classy” Jimmy Lennon Jr. spoke the following words into the microphone on Saturday night; And Still! Why wouldn’t this fight be made?

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Schaefer still wants Cotto vs. Alvarez

09/15/201612/04/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Rob Smith: Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, isn’t going to let Miguel Cotto’s 12 round decision loss to WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout from last Saturday night get in the way of a potential pay per view bout between Cotto and WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Schaefer still wants to make the Cotto-Alvarez fight despite Cotto losing.

Schaefer said after the fight “There’s still a possibility we’ll see Canelo-Cotto fight.”

This doesn’t sit too well with Trout, who said “You’d think that he’d [Alvarez] be ready to fight me because I beat Miguel Cotto…I beat his brother [Rigoberto Alvarez]…He should want to fight me…There’s nothing left for him to do, besides fight a real junior middleweight, to get another belt. But that’s my thinking. Not everyone thinks like me apparently.”

Alvarez really wants the Cotto fight, and that was one of the three names that he insisted on Golden Boy Promotions getting for him for his next fight on May 4th. Cotto is the only one that Golden Boy can possibly get because Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sergio Martinez, Alvarez’s other two choices, aren’t breaking down Golden Boy’s door to try and get the fight with Alvarez.

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Canelo fans doubt “No Doubt”

09/15/201612/03/2012 Eddy Pronishev

by Paul Strauss: Despite the impressive win by WBA light middleweight champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout 26 (KO14)-0-0 over Miguel Angel “Junito” Cotto 37 (KO 30)-4-0 this past Saturday at Madison Square Garden, fans of WBC light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez‘ 41(KO 30)-0-1, who was ringside, are confident their red headed warrior will remove all doubt when he meets Trout. It’s likely this matchup will be made, because both fighters eagerly want to unify the title and become the universally recognized light (junior) middleweight champion of the world.

Austin has taken the nickname “No Doubt”, because having doubt implies fear. He trains and conditions his body, his mind and his spirit to remove all doubt. It comes as no surprise that Canelo fans also feel there is no cause for fear on their part, because they see Cinnamon as a fighter who has the needed tools to beat the slick boxing Trout.

The southpaw “No Doubt” beat Cotto by employing a steady, but not necessarily damaging, right jab. It was a jab that gave Cotto fits. He was forced to spend time and effort trying to avoid and work around it. It was a disruption, a gnat in the eye, an irritant, a distraction. It enabled Trout to sneak through with straight lefts to the body and head. It also disrupted Cotto’s rhythm and ability to get off with his shots.

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A Trout win over Cotto could mess up Saul Alvarez’s plans

09/15/201611/28/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Bill Phanco: WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will be attending this Saturday’s fight between Miguel Cotto and WBA World junior middleweight champion Austin Trout at Madison Square Garden with the hopes of facing Cotto if he wins the fight. That’s the opponent that Alvarez badly wants, but he may not get him of Trout has something to say about it.

Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said this to RingTV about a Trout victory over Cotto: “I think we have to see what fashion in which Trout wins, and then we’ll make an assessment on it, and I will have to talk with Canelo.”

In other words, Alvarez may not fight Trout if he beats Cotto. I suspect that it doesn’t matter how good or bad Trout looks in the fight. If he beats Cotto, I don’t see Golden Boy allowing Alvarez to take the fight with Trout, because he’s all wrong for their young, flat-footed, easy to hit champion Alvarez. If you look at the types of fighters that they’ve been putting in with Alvarez – slow, older, stationary and smaller fighters – it’s clear that Trout is not the ideal opponent. In fact, Trout is the opposite of the types of guys that Golden Boy has fed to Alvarez, which is why I don’t see Trout getting the fight even if he destroys Cotto.

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Merchant wants Mayweather to fight Alvarez or Pacquiao rather than Guerrero

11/28/201211/26/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Marcus Richardson: HBO analyst Larry Merchant prefers that Floyd Mayweather Jr. be looking to get a bigger fight the next time he sets foot in the ring by going after a fight with the likes of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez or Manny Pacquiao rather than choosing to fight WBC interim welterweight champion Robert Guerrero, who has been calling Mayweather Jr. out a lot lately trying to get a fight with him.

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez: “Canelo wants Mayweather and Cotto in 2013”

09/14/201610/23/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Joseph Herron: On November 10th, at the Wynn Las Vegas, an impactful contest between the top two WBC Junior Middleweight contenders will take place, which theoretically should determine the next challenger for the incumbent title holder.

But according to Golden Boy advisor and Hall of Fame matchmaker Don Chargin, it’s no guarantee that we’ll see Canelo Alvarez face either Erislandy Lara or Vanes Martirosyan anytime soon.

“There are a few fighters that we’re considering for Canelo’s next opponent,” claims the legendary boxing promoter. “But all Canelo has on the brain lately is a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr.”

While the great Don Chargin acknowledges that massive scrutiny will more than likely arise among critics and detractors if the current WBC Junior Middleweight Champion refuses to face the eventual November 10th victor, the six decade boxing advocate doesn’t see any merit in an overtly negative analysis.

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WBC prepared to enforce Junior Middleweight mandatory challenger in 2013

09/14/201609/30/2012 Eddy Pronishev

By Joseph Herron – On November 10th, at the Wynn Las Vegas, Vanes Martirosyan will finally face Erislandy Lara in a highly anticipated WBC Junior Middleweight title eliminator, which should place the eventual winner in a Championship contest opposite current WBC title holder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in 2013.

While many fighters and boxing scribes alike have characterized the WBC’s involvement with Canelo’s championship run as unscrupulous, the president of the WBC has assured boxing fans and all three fighters involved with the 154 pound mini tournament that the eventual mandatory challenger for the WBC Junior Middleweight crown will indeed receive their deserved title opportunity immediately following the conclusion of the big November 10th event.

“Saul Alvarez must defend his title against the winner of the November 10th contest between Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara,” asserts Don Jose Sulaiman. “If he does not want to face the winner immediately after the conclusion of the contest, then he will have to forfeit the title.”

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