Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is hoping tore-establish himself among the top fighters in boxing this year. His plan was to get in the ring three times in 2014, with the first bout being a megafight against Miguel Cotto on March 8th.
Cotto has decided to bypass that match, however, in favor of chasing a fourth title in a fourth weight class against middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. That leaves Canelo with some less enticing options in terms of name value.
Canelo's team has narrowed the choices down to IBF 154-lb. champion Carlos Molina, and knockout artist Alfredo Angulo. Erislandy Lara has been extremely vocal about wanting to take Alvarez on, and made a good case for himself by dominating Austin Trout on December 7th, and knocking him down for the second time in his career.
"I did what Canelo couldn't do," Lara told Showtime's Jim Gray through an interpreter. "I dominated Trout and I dropped him. Now we have to make a fight that everyone wants to see which is me against Canelo."
Canelo is a big ticket fighter though, in need of image rehabilitation, so Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer is not exactly eager to plop his star in the ring with a defensive tactician.
"From the point of view of a promoter, I can say I'd prefer to see Alfredo Angulo more than the others from the point of view of his style. I think Angulo would be a great fight, people do not like chess matches," Schaefer said.
Molina is the favorite of Alvarez's camp. Even though Molina is crafty in his own right, Team Canelo views his title as a nice prize, and respects his ring prowess.
"Lara is a better option but the ideal opponent is the champion Molina. He has all of the merits and people saw him on pay-per-view in September, and that is something that we would be looking for," said Alvarez's manager and trainer Eddy Reynoso.
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