By Miguel Rivera
According to World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman, WBC junior middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will be given the option of having a voluntary defense before having to fight the winner of the upcoming final eliminator between Vanes Martirsoyan (32-0, 20 KOs) and Erislandy Lara (17-1-1, 11 KOs). The fight between Martirosyan and Lara takes place on November 10th at The Wynn in Las Vegas.
The orginal plan was to have Canelo take a fight in December, but he recently sat down with Golden Boy Promotions and told them that he plans to take a break until Cinco De Mayo weekend. Canelo gave Golden Boy three names, in no particular order, that he wants to fight on May 4th. He wants Miguel Cotto, Sergio Martinez or Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Canelo has made five successful defenses against Ryan Rhodes, Alfonso Gomez, Kermit Cintron, Sugar Shane Mosley and Josesito Lopez - but only one of them Rhodes, was a mandatory defense.
"Because Lara and Martirosyan will not fight until November, we will allow Alvarez to have one more optional fight before facing the winner of the eliminator," said Sulaiman.
