Golden Boy Reserves T-Mobile Arena For May 6, Likely Canelo-Chavez

By Jake Donovan

Regardless of how his negotiations with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. play out, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez officially has a home for his next ring appearance.

The reigning super welterweight titlist and (technically still) World lineal middleweight champion is due to return to the ring on May 6. The event will take place at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, as Golden Boy was approved to place a hold on the venue by the Nevada State Athletic Commission during its monthly agenda hearing Friday morning at its state headquarters.

As this goes to publish, there is a strong likelihood that Alvarez will wind up facing Chavez Jr. The matchup has been fantasized for years, but became a strong reality in December when Chavez Jr. – who is rumored to sign his contract later this (Friday) afternoon – returned to the ring in a 10-round decision win over Dominick Britsch.

For a brief spell, there existed the belief that he would eventually challenge another popular boxer from Mexico – reigning unbeaten super middleweight titlist Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. However, that rumor quickly dissolved the moment there stood a chance of moving forward with a Cinco de Mayo themed event with Alvarez at a catchweight of 164.5 lbs.

Once approved, the show will mark the second appearance at T-Mobile Arena for Alvarez, who headlined the first-ever boxing show at the state-of-the-art venue last May. His 6th round knockout win of Amir Khan in the evening’s main event also landed on Cinco de Mayo weekend, topping what served as the best-selling Pay-Per-View of 2016.

While there is a slew of PPV shows being lined up for the first half of 2017, there is little question that this will land as the highest grossing event of the lot given the enormous following of both boxers. The pairing will also flood Las Vegas with a throng of Mexican and Mexican-American boxing fans while serving as the backdrop for a likely sold-out T-Mobile Arena.

The bout will be the first for Alvarez (48-1-1. 34KOs) since a 9th round title-winning stoppage over previously unbeaten Liam Smith last September. The bout took place in front of an announced crowd of well over 50,000 at AT&T Stadium – home to the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas – in celebration of Mexico’s Independence Day.

Should Alvarez emerge victorious, the expectation will be to move forward with a long-awaited middleweight championship showdown with unbeaten, unified titlist Gennady Golovkin in September.

Well before then, Golovkin has his own affairs to tend to as he makes a mandatory title defense versus secondary beltholder Daniel Jacobs. The bout takes place March 18 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, airing live on HBO Pay-Per-View. The show comes three weeks after HBO’s first PPV event of 2017 - with Miguel Cotto squaring off versus James Kirkland on February 25 – and just seven weeks prior to Alvarez’ ring return.

Golovkin has fought just once before on PPV, moving roughly 150,000 units for his knockout win over David Lemieux in their Oct. ’15 title unification clash. The show came five weeks prior to Alvarez’ World middleweight title lifting effort over Cotto via unanimous decision. Their Nov. ’15 show sold 930,000 PPV units, far and away the best-selling event in the post-Mayweather-Pacquiao era.

Final sales for Alvarez-Chavez Jr. and Golovkin-Jacobs could very well factor into the latest round of negotiations. Golovkin will come into the bout with the lion’s share of the divisional hardware – assuming he gets past Jacobs – and has proven to be a sizeable draw in playing to sold-out crowds in New York, Southern California and most recently London, England in his knockout win over welterweight titlist Kell Brook last September.

However, Alvarez remains the significantly bigger draw of the two and thus holds considerable leverage at the negotiating table. This fact is not lost on the Golden Boy staff, particularly company founder and Hall of Fame former six-division champ Oscar de la Hoya who has talked in circles regarding the fight but has so far shown extreme reluctance in making it a reality.

Meanwhile, at least one more superfight in Alvarez’ already terrific career will soon see ink meeting paper, and at a T-Mobile Arena he can already call home.

Twitter: @JakeNDaBox_v2