Ahhh… to be Canelo Alvarez.

To have the boxing world by the tail to the extent that you can intermittently drop into a weight class – super middleweight, in this case – and make a fight an event simply because you’re on the marquee.

A win was a formality, largely because the opponent was Fielding – who’d beaten precisely no one in the division’s top 10 – and not someone like, say, Callum Smith, who held (and still holds) the WBA’s top-tier belt in the weight class and had a one-round erasure of the very same Fielding on his resume.

Alvarez blew Fielding’s doors off and went on to beat the likes of Daniel Jacobs (UD 12) and Sergey Kovalev (KO 11) last year at 160 and 175, but he’s apparently feeling the lure of 168 once again.

News broke last week that the return would come in May against Billy Joe Saunders, which provides the superstar a chance to grab a real belt in the division while still missing the perceived top guy.

Smith is No. 1 at 168 according to the Independent World Boxing Rankings, while Saunders, the WBO champion, is eighth. Fielding, by the way, was No. 6 when Alvarez got him and has since dipped to 14th.

But before you lob grenades at Team Canelo for cherry-picking some more gaudy jewelry, don’t.

Seems that Oscar De La Hoya did extend an offer to Smith and his team at Matchroom, but was turned down by promotional counterpart Eddie Hearn – opening the door for Saunders to jump in.

Exact figures weren’t leaked, which provides suitable PR cover for Smith to say he was low-balled and for Hearn to insist it’s still the match the fighter really wants next.

But the claims ring hollow at any price.

Alvarez is the golden goose. Smith, meanwhile, is a very good fighter and probably capable of giving the A-sider a legitimate push, but he’s barely recognizable to all but hardcore fans outside the UK.

It may be unfortunate, and it may sound unfair, but if it’s a fight Smith really wants then he’s got to concede the financial high ground to get it.

And if Saunders does pull off the upset, he’ll surely be wishing he had. 

Meanwhile, speaking of Alvarez, when did I leave the room and seven years passed?

Seems like only a couple of yesterdays since I was a mercenary name on the Showtime payroll, recruited by the boxing powers-that-be to serve as the network’s official blogger for the summertime press tour hyping a September match between a 22-year-old Canelo – he turned 23 between tour and fight – and a 36-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I logged thousands of miles on what felt like hundreds of flights while following the combatants on a continent-wide odyssey, starting on a Monday afternoon in Times Square and ending the following week on a Tuesday evening at Nokia Plaza in Los Angeles.

In between were eight other cities – Washington, D.C., Grand Rapids, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Mexico City, Houston and San Antonio – on an adventure that was cut one venue short when a scheduled Denver date was scrubbed after a tragically fatal wildfire.

The takeaway from each city, even back then, was that the Canelo kid was a star in the making.

The fans were on his side at nearly every venue, and he was remarkably no worse than 50/50 in Mayweather’s own hometown thanks to an enthusiastic immigrant population.

Ramiro Gonzalez, who was interpreting for Alvarez along the route back then, was not surprised.

“He’s established new records in Mexico that even surpass the national soccer team. He’s a crossover star,” he said. “And we know the U.S. is filled with a lot of Mexicans that support their team when they travel, so we knew they would come out for Canelo, too.”

I’d not have imagined, however, that the kid had this much competitive and popularity upside.

He’s without peer when it comes to pay-per-view gravitas in the post-Mayweather era, and the fact that he’s risen from the ashes of Money’s 36-minute clinic (in spite of C.J. Ross’s ridiculous math) to lay claim to both middleweight and light heavyweight supremacy is awfully impressive considering the hard road he’s traveled to get there.

Each of the 11 fighters he’s beaten (six by stoppage) since September 2013 has had at least a tangential claim to world-class status at one time or another, and the likes of Miguel Cotto, Gennady Golovkin and Kovalev, in particular, were legit top-of-the-ladder quality when Alvarez took them down.

And considering he’s still just 29, the remaining fights on the DAZN contract ought to provide a few more interesting bullet points for what’s already a Canastota-worthy plaque.

Now I wonder if I can still submit my travel receipts.

* * * * * * * * * *

This week’s title-fight schedule:

WBO featherweight title – New York, New York
Shakur Stevenson (champion/No. 6 IWBR) vs. Miguel Marriaga (No. 7 WBO/Unranked IWBR)
Stevenson (13-0, 7 KO): First title defense; Three KO/TKO wins in four New York fights (4-0, 3 KO)
Marriaga (29-3, 25 KO): Fourth title fight (0-3); One win in fights lasting past Round 9 (1-2, 0 KO)
Fitzbitz says: The perception is that Marriaga is a step up in class for Stevenson. But the challenger hasn’t won at the highest level and won’t here either. Stevenson shines. Stevenson by decision (90/10)

Last week's picks: 1-0 (WIN: Niyomtrong)
2020 picks record: 14-3 (82.3 percent)
Overall picks record: 1,130-368 (75.4 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.