Who’s Next For Canelo Alvarez? A List of Five Possible Opponents
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By Rich “Lite It Up” Lopez
Recently in front of a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden, Canelo Alvarez put on a show. Canelo did what he had to do and stopped Rocky Fielding in three rounds. It was also Canelo’s debut on DAZN and his first fight of his eleven fight contract. Canelo also won a world title in a third weight class and added his name of only a few fighters from Mexico to achieve this goal. Sure Fielding was not a world beater but this was a stay busy fight for Canelo. Plus Canelo just fought three months ago against a tough fight against GGG. Golden Boy Promotions has announced recently they have booked the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for May 4th for Canelo’s next fight.
The question is who will be the next opponent? Here is a list of five possible opponents:
1. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin: A rubber match with GGG is a must and financially is the most obvious choice. Bottom line, there is still unfinished business between these two fighters and the first two fights were great. In my opinion, Canelo and GGG are 1-1 against each other. I felt GGG won the first fight and Canelo won the second fight. Either way both fights were close and controversial, so a third fight is in store. Ideally this fight should be next as GGG is getting older and running out of time. If the fight is not made in May of 2019, then it has to be in September at least. These two fighters were made for each other and we should expect another great fight.
2. Daniel Jacobs: A fight between Canelo and Jacobs should be a must for next year as well. Jacobs would present a different type of challenge for Canelo. The speed and height of Jacobs would cause some problems for Canelo, especially early in the fight. The only downfall for Jacobs is that he tends to fade in the late rounds. This showed in his last three fights. However Jacobs has been winning and he gave GGG one of his toughest fights up to date besides Canelo. Either way Jacobs deserves the shot against Canelo and it would be a great matchup.
3. Billy Joe Saunders: Based on styles, the British southpaw would be a nightmare for Canelo. Saunders moves and boxes well. He has beaten fighters such as: Chris Eubank, JR, Andy Lee, and David Lemieux. Canelo has been known in the past to struggle against elusive boxers. However, Canelo has gotten better and did find a way to beat elusive boxers like Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. Saunders is very outspoken and would hype up the fight very well. It would be a good sell over in England. First, Saunders would need to get his act together and win another signature fight in the middleweight division. Most recently he failed a drug test in what was supposed to be a title defense of his WBO strap against Demetrius Andrade.
4. Jermall Charlo: Jermall Charlo is the WBC Interim WBC World Middleweight Champion and Canelo is the WBC World Middleweight Champion. It would make sense for this matchup to happen but maybe after another year of buildup. Lately Charlo has been talking a lot and calling out Canelo. Charlo is a big strong middleweight with lots of power but I believe he needs two more big fights at Middleweight to see how he does. With his recent performance against Matt Korobov, he stepped up the competition at middleweight and did not look good. A Canelo and Charlo fight would be exciting though.
5. Jaime Munguia: The new Junior Middleweight Champion from Mexico made a splash in 2018. He went from unknown to a world champion in one year. He has an exciting style and goes for the knockout. He’s still learning on the job and is looking to become the best junior middleweight champion. He’s a tall fighter and sometime in the future will be moving up to the middleweight division. The 22 year old just needs to keep winning and look spectacular in his fights. Down the road we can see a big Mexican showdown between Canelo and Munguia. Maybe in Mexico? That would be huge.
There are many other opponents in the running as well like Rob Brant, Demetrius Andrade, and Jarrett Hurd. I think the five fighters I listed are more known and would generate more interest to the public.
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