By Jake Donovan

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez sought a second opinion on an injury he hoped would heal in time for a third time in 2016. Instead came confirmation that boxing’s biggest current box office attraction in The Americas is benched for the remainder of the year.

The reigning two-time super welterweight titlist – who also still lays claim to the World middleweight championship – suffered a fractured right thumb over the course of his 9th round knockout of Liam Smith in September at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The severity of the injury was diagnosed by Dr. Pedro Lemoli during a visit while at home in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The findings were confirmed on Wednesday by Dr. Kenneth R. Sabbag, a Board Certified orthopedic surgeon in California.

“Canelo sought another opinion on his hand in Los Angeles yesterday, and this doctor confirmed the findings of the doctor in Mexico,” Golden Boy Promotions spokesman Stefan Friedman informed BoxingScene.com on Thursday.

Alvarez (48-1-1, 34KOs) believes the injury occurred during the second round of his win over Smith, which played to more than 51,000 in attendance and somewhere in the vicinity of 275,000-300,000 Pay-Per-View buyers. The hope was that he would be able to move forward with a December 10 headliner on HBO Prime – his first non-PPV appearance since May ’15 – but now shifts the timeline to early 2017.

“Fighting in the first quarter of 2017 remains an option depending on how things feel after the cast comes off,” notes Friedman.

An early return would allow Alvarez three fights in 2017, all while maintaining his current hold on fighting on the two biggest holiday weekends in Mexico – Cinco de Mayo (May) and Mexican Independence Day (September).

There remains hope that the latter date will come versus unbeaten, unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin, who himself will have three fights in 2016. Original plans called for the Kazakhstani knockout artist to fight in December, one week after Alvarez as HBO brass hope to continue to build momentum towards an eventual superfight.

Golovkin will now instead assume Alvarez’ December 10 date, presumably versus mandatory challenger and secondary titleholder Daniel Jacobs.

Despite the injury, Alvarez and Golden Boy promise that the timeline does not change for an eventual showdown with Golovkin, which company founder Oscar de la Hoya has repeatedly insisted is “not a matter of if, but when.”

Twitter: @JakeNDaBox_v2