By Keith Idec

The promoter in Oscar De La Hoya would love to predict Saul Alvarez will knock out Shane Mosley.

The fighter in “The Golden Boy” knows better. De La Hoya realize that the odds are stacked against Alvarez stopping Mosley in their 12-round fight May 5 in Las Vegas.

“I would be pleasantly surprised if ‘Canelo’ knocks him out,” De La Hoya said. “Obviously, it would catapult him to another stratosphere. Nobody has ever been able to knock out Shane Mosley, including myself, including the best in the world. And if a 21-year-old fighter named ‘Canelo’ can do it, then that’ll be huge.”

Mosley’s seven losses all have been 12-round decision defeats — two to the late Vernon Forrest, two to Ronald “Winky” Wright and one apiece to Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. The 40-year-old former three-division champion has been down just three times in his 19-year pro career, twice in the second round of his first fight against Forrest in January 2002 and once in the third round against Pacquiao last May 7.

“My mentality is to go in there, perform and win, but not look for the knockout,” Alvarez said. “When you go out there and look for the knockout, other obstacles will come through and you don’t [carry] your plan out. So I’m prepared for the best Shane Mosley and I’m prepared to do my job in the ring. I’m ready for 12 rounds.”

The 21-year-old Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs) has won his last three fights by technical knockout, but Mosley’s granite chin has been much more reliable than those of Kermit Cintron, Alfonso Gomez and Ryan Rhodes.

“I don’t expect him to go and look for the knockout with Shane Mosley,” De La Hoya said, “because he hit it right on the button, ‘Canelo,’ if you look for the knockout you won’t get it. But he didn’t look for the knockout when he fought [Carlos] Baldomir, so you just never know what’s going to happen in that ring, especially when you’re facing ‘Canelo.’ ”

Alvarez became just the second fighter to knock out Baldomir, and the first in 16 years, in September 2010. The popular Mexican champion blasted Baldomir with a counter left hook that left Baldomir face-first on the canvas and unable to continue during the sixth round in Los Angeles.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.